More than 15 top Taliban leaders, most of them ex-cabinet members, are in contact with Afghan authorities in Kandahar over their possible surrender, a senior official said today.
"Right now we are in contact with more than 15 top Taliban," said Mr Khalid Pashtoon, a senior aide to Kandahar Governor Mr Gul Agha Sherzai. "We are trying to convince them to surrender peacefully, with dignity, and we promise them they will not be mistreated."
Asked whether Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was among them, he said: "No. He knows the consequences if he surrenders."
But Afghan security officials said they hoped the Taliban leaders could provide information to track down Mullah Omar, and even help locate the world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden.
Friday, Taliban Foreign Minister Mullah Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil surrendered to officials in the southern city of Kandahar and was handed to US forces based at the city airport.
Muttawakil, who for years was one of Mullah Omar's closest confidantes, was the most senior Taliban leader to surrender so far.
Asked whether he was confident that more Taliban leaders would follow Muttawakil and turn themselves in, Pashtoon said: "Yes. But it depends on our work, and our efforts."
He said most of the Taliban leaders holding negotiations with Afghanistan's interim authority were cabinet level, but he declined to disclose their names.
He also declined to say where they were, and whether they were negotiating as a group, or separately.