In a speech marking the Afghan new year, Vice President Abdul Karim Khalili on Monday called on militants to lay down their weapons because the nation will never return to the days of hard-line Taliban rule. "We are going toward the light. We are never going back to the dark," Khalili said at a historic blue-tiled mosque in the centre of Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan.
Efforts to reconcile with Taliban insurgents have not yet gained traction and violence continues across the nation. On Sunday night, a gunman killed an Afghan policeman outside the headquarters of Yosuf Khel district of Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan, said Mokhlis Afghan, a spokesman for the province. The officer was trying to prevent the man from getting inside when he was shot.
Also, Nato reported that a coalition service member died Sunday in a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan. No details or the service member's nationality were released. The death raised to 88 the number of international troops killed so far this year.