Fawzia Koofi: Afghan negotiator and campaigner shot by gunmen

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Fawzia Koofi is one particular of the number of Afghan females to have attended talks with the Taliban

An attack on a person of the only ladies taking part in negotiations with the Taliban was a “cowardly and prison” endeavor to disrupt the Afghan peace procedure, the US envoy has stated.

Zalmay Khalilzad stated he was “relieved” that Fawzia Koofi experienced escaped Friday’s capturing “with out critical personal injury”.

Ms Koofi was shot in the ideal arm while travelling with her sister.

The Taliban have denied they had been powering the assault, which came as the two sides prepared for talks.

The militant team has previously refused to negotiate instantly with the Afghan federal government, but agreed to take section in the talks aiming to end virtually two decades of conflict just after achieving an agreement with the US in February.

As element of the agreement, the Afghan governing administration experienced to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners. On Thursday, it started releasing the final 400 militants. Talks are predicted to start out in Qatar soon after the closing prisoner is released.

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But there are worries the attack on Ms Koofi, an outspoken critic of the Taliban who was returning from a assembly in the northern Parwan province when she was attacked near the cash Kabul, could undermine the approach.

“Stressing pattern of targeted attacks that can negatively affect confidence in peace method,” the main of Afghanistan’s Unbiased Human Legal rights Fee, Shaharzad Akbar, wrote on Twitter.

Mr Khalizad also took to Twitter, declaring he required “all sides who request peace to not only condemn the assault but to speed up the peace course of action and get started intra-Afghan negotiations ASAP”.

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Media captionIs peace with the Taliban doable?

The assault, which no just one has claimed, was also condemned as “cowardly” by President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the Higher Council for Nationwide Reconciliation.

Ms Koofi is just one of the few girls to have taken component in dialogue with the challenging-line Islamist team, which ruled Afghanistan until they were eradicated from electricity in Afghanistan by a US-led invasion in 2001.

They have fought to regain territory given that. Last 12 months by itself, more than 3,000 civilians have been killed in the conflict, in accordance to United Nations figures.

Nonetheless, the offer attained with the US has proved controversial. On Saturday, France objected to the launch of some of the remaining 400 prisoners held by the Afghan authorities – some of whom it states were being involved in the killings of French nationals.

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