A number of religious scholars in a gathering on Thursday in Kabul said that until foreign troops leave Afghanistan, the war will not end.

“War must be completely wiped out of our country…troops must be withdrawn… intervention from outside must stop,” said Abdul Saboor Fakhri, head of Jamiat-e Islah.

“The cause of the trouble is the occupation, things are deteriorating because of this occupation,” said Sayed Akbar Agha, former Taliban commander.

Some politicians also see the presence of foreign troops as the root cause for the ongoing war in Afghanistan.

“We must strongly support the call for foreign forces to leave Afghanistan as a whole. And national sovereignty must be fully restored--and that does not mean that Afghanistan will not have relations with the world,” said Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, former Afghan envoy to Pakistan.

The scholars said that the country is in more need of peace than ever before, and that the role of religious scholars should prominent in mobilizing efforts to achieve peace.

“This is a deadly war and the role of the religious scholars is weak in the peace process,” said Abdul Hakim Mujahid, an advisor to the High Peace Council.

“Yes, the scholars are involved, but the basic condition for the unity of the scholars is the independence of the scholars, and their role is meaningless as long as the scholars do not maintain their independence,” said Ayaz Niazi, a religious scholar from Kabul.

Many religious scholars have been accused of being silent regarding terrorist acts in the country.