Afghan President Ashraf Ghani tweeted on Thursday that the truce would last “from the 27th of Ramadan until the fifth day of Eid-al-Fitr,” a period which falls on June 12-19.
The development came a few days after over 2,000 Afghan religious scholars issued a fatwa (religious decree) outlawing bombings and demanding that Taliban accept the government’s peace offer in order to prevent further bloodshed.
Ghani welcomed the clerics’ decree, saying, “The government of Afghanistan not only supports the unanimous fatwa announcement by the ulemas (scholars), but also backs the recommended ceasefire.”
“(At) the same time, the Afghan government directs all the security and defense forces of the country... to stop all the attacks on the Taliban, but the operation will continue against Daesh, al-Qaeda and other international terrorist networks,” he added.
However, a Taliban spokesman told AFP that they were still “checking with our officials” regarding the ceasefire announcement.
The US and its allies invaded Afghanistan under the guise of the war on terror. Some 17 years on, the Taliban group has only boosted its campaign of violence across the country, targeting both civilians and security forces in bloody assaults.
