KABUL, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Afghans from all walks of life have been pushing for peace and calling upon Taliban and government to observe ceasefire and initiate negotiation for finding peaceful settlement to the country's lingering crisis.
Hundreds of the war-weary people from the poppy-growing Helmand province, the de-facto fiefdom of the Taliban insurgents launched a Peace March in late April and arrived the capital city of Kabul last week after walking 700 kilometers in 38 days.
In the beginning, over a dozen people launched a sit-in protest in Lashkargah, the capital of the restive Helmand province, after a suicide bombing outside a sport stadium claimed over two dozen lives and injured several others in April.
The move has been backed by people elsewhere in the country and number of the peace marchers has increased by each passing day.
The peace marchers have vowed to continue their peaceful protest until and unless the Taliban and the government initiate dialogue for boosting national reconciliation.
Welcoming the move, Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani announced a seven-day ceasefire on June 12 and the Taliban outfit in response announced a three-day truce, allowing Afghans to have peaceful days on Eid ul- Fitr, the second annual largest religious festival to mark the end of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month which ended on June 17.
To support the process, Ghani extended the government ceasefire for another 10 days, requesting the Taliban outfit to follow suit. However, the militants refused to extend and instead began attacking security forces elsewhere in the war-battered country and since then scores of government security forces have been killed and injured.
Backing the peace marchers, hundreds of people from other provinces including Ghazni, Wardak and Kunar provinces have joined them on thier way from Helmand to Kabul and have voiced their support for the peace process.
The peace protestors have also vowed to arrange peaceful sit-in in front of UN office in Kabul and Kabul-based embassies including the embassy of the United States of America to ask them to help bring an end to Afghan conflict.
"Our first and last desire in our life is peace and therefore we are calling upon Taliban and government to initiate talks and resolve their differences peacefully to achieve peace in this country," a peace marcher Abdul Hafiz told Xinhua.
Meantime, President Ghani on Saturday announced end to his government's unilateral ceasefire and orders security forces to resume operations against the armed militants.
The spokesman for Afghan Defense Ministry General Mohammad Radmanish has said that the government's unilateral truce ended Saturday and security forces would resume operations to target the armed insurgents elsewhere in the country from today.
"We want peace to replace the war in Afghanistan and therefore we continue our peaceful protest until our demand is met," Zumarai Salam, a member of peace marchers who arranged sit-in in front of U.S. embassy told local media.
