The Shura-e-Aali Rah-e-Nejat (the high council of the Salvation of Afghanistan party ), and a number of religious scholars, on Thursday in a gathering in Mazar-e-Sharif city called on the government, the international community and the Taliban to speed up the process of peace talks.

They stated that peace should not be sacrificed for the results of the presidential election, and also that the grounds for a lasting peace should be prepared as soon as possible.

They also said they believe that night raids by foreign forces have increased the violence in the country and should end immediately.

“We are striving to uphold one of Allah’s decrees, which is peace, and I wish the Afghan peace would begin soon,” said Azizullah Hashimi, a religious scholar.

“We and other Afghan scholars--and the people--demand peace to keep the country whole and to save the citizens of this country from more grief,” said Najibullah Haidari, another scholar.

Sayed Akbar Agha, head of the Shura-e-Aali Rah-e-Nejat, believes that the continuation of night operations is one of the reasons for the increase in violence in the country, and he insisted that these kinds of operations stop.

“Night raids are detrimental to the nation, night raids are harmful to the peace process—the nation is suffering from night raids, so anything that is harmful to the nation is wrong,” said Sayed Akbar Agha.

The participants at the gathering emphasized that peace talks among Afghans are the key to resolving the country's crisis.

“Intra-Afghan talks should be started between Afghans without foreign troops’ interference because both the Taliban and the government are Afghans,” said Abdulraouf Tawana, a religious scholar.

Religious scholars at the gathering said the continuing war in Afghanistan does not benefit neighboring countries, so they also call on neighboring countries to take effective steps to bring lasting peace to Afghanistan.