Taliban declares three-day ceasefire for Eid celebration
- “But if the enemy conducts any assault or attack against you during these days, stand ready to robustly protect and defend yourselves and your territory,” the statement said.
The Taliban declared on Monday a three-day ceasefire in Afghanistan to mark Eid ul-Fitr holiday.
Eid will begin on Wednesday or Thursday this week depending on the sighting of the moon. In a statement, the Taliban instructed the 'mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate' to halt all offensive operations against the enemy countrywide from the first till the third day of Eid.
“But if the enemy conducts any assault or attack against you during these days, stand ready to robustly protect and defend yourselves and your territory,” the statement added. Fraidoon Khwazoon, a spokesman for Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation, which heads the peace process, said the group welcomed the Taliban's ceasefire announcement, Reuters reported.
The group had also announced a three-day cease-fire for Eid last year, which was reciprocated and welcomed by the Afghan government.
The ceasefire announcement comes following a deadly attack outside a girls’ school in Dasht-e-Barchi, a suburb of the capital largely populated by the Shia Hazara community.
At least 68, most of them students, were killed while more than 165 people were injured. Afghan government leadership blamed the Taliban, who has denied they were involved in the attack.
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