ISLAMABAD - Pakistan said yesterday that Afghanistan's Taliban had accepted peace proposals made by the northern opposition leader, Gen Abdul Malik, who inflicted a stinging defeat on the Islamic militia in the north last week. A Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman said Gen Malik had imposed on the Taliban three conditions for a peace deal, which he passed to the Pakistani consul general in the northern capital of Mazar i Sharif.
Gen Malik demanded that the Taliban leave an opposition alliance to rule the north, stop trying to disarm opposition fighters there and agree to an "Islamic dispensation" that Gen Malik would set up in cooperation with the Taliban. The spokesman said the Taliban leadership had agreed to all Gen Malik's proposals.
Meanwhile it was reported from Kabul that heavy artillery fire was exchanged on the front line north of the city yesterday as the Taliban militia prepared for a new infantry push against rivals. Taliban commanders said they were preparing for a new assault against the opposition commander Gen Ahmad Shah Masood, who occupies Jabul Siraj town, 77km north of the capital.