In a rare change of tone, former president Hamid Karzai on Sunday labeled the Taliban as an insurgent group, saying he will no longer see the Taliban as “brothers”.

Karzai’s policy shift on the Taliban comes two days after 10 Taliban suicide attackers infiltrated the Afghan National Army’s (ANA) 209 Shaheen Army Corps in the northern province of Balkh killing at least 135 offices and wounding over 80.

According to Karzai, the Taliban, by taking orders from foreigners, has committed an act of mass murder and in carrying out the atrocity, they have further expanded the wounds of the people of Afghanistan.

“With consideration of (Friday’s) act in which they (Taliban) killed our people, I can no longer call them brothers. I rather address them as a group which poses harm to Afghanistan; anyone who kills an Afghan for the sake of foreigners’ objectives is a terrorist whether it is Taliban, Daesh or anyone else,” said Karzai.

Talking on the peace process in Afghanistan, Karzai said that restoring sustainable peace and stability in Afghanistan was linked to the cooperation of the U.S and Pakistan.

“Peace will come to the country if we work as a unified nation and hold the U.S accountable,” added Karzai.

Meanwhile, a number of political commentators have said that Karzai shifted his stance on the Taliban over mounting criticisms of his Taliban policy.

“He wants to participate in the next presidential elections and take charge of the leadership, therefore he wants to attract the attention of people,” university lecturer Hikmat Shahbaz said.

Taliban’s infiltration of Shaheen corps marks one of the deadliest attacks by insurgents on a military installation.