The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, a key political party in Sri Lanka, in a statement has urged all parties to the Afghan conflict to avoid escalating violence “which will undoubtedly be counterproductive to attaining lasting peace.”

“The indiscriminate violent attacks, which are frequently reported, have the potential to derail the much-hyped nascent peace process. We have followed developments in Afghanistan with grave concern,” the statement said.

It also mentioned that the Sri Lankan nation has suffered immensely and has sacrificed many lives due to political violence.

“Acts of terror to achieve political objectives, unfortunately, target innocent civilians, including children and women, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, or religion,” the party said, adding that “we unequivocally condemn the ongoing terror attacks taking place in Afghanistan and wish to point out that there is no Islamic justification whatsoever for such indiscriminate violence to achieve political objectives.”

It also said that a proper roadmap for peace with mutually agreed confidence-building measures is an urgent need to be considered as top priority to resume negotiations.

“The Afghan government’s decision to release over 5000 Taliban prisoners as a major concession for peacemaking and reconciliation was a step in the right direction. But it is unfortunate that such concession has not had the desired effect,” the statement said.

Relevant lessons learnt from other peace processes must be carefully considered to suit the Afghan situation.

“The need for an agreed mediation process, underpinned and supervised by the international community with the full involvement of important regional powers in the neighborhood, is imperative for successfully finalizing a peace process,” it said.

"Considering the four-decade-long suffering of the Afghan people, we hope that all stakeholders in the Afghan peace process would work together to end Afghanistan’s conflict and to ensure that the Afghan people will enjoy the dividends of permanent peace, following war termination," the statement concluded. 

Violence has remained high in the country despite peace efforts.

Figures collected by TOLOnews show that 140 people have been killed and 202 others have been wounded in different security incidents in the last 15 days. 

Of the 140 killed, 87 of them were security force members, 42 were civilians and 11 were government employees. 

Of the wounded, 74 were security force members, 114 were civilians and 14 were government employees. 

Data collected by TOLOnews shows that 270 civilians and security force members were killed and 173 more were wounded in various security incidents across the country in February.

The findings show that 166 security incidents, including magnetic IED blasts, roadside bomb blasts, targeted attacks and Taliban offensives, occurred in Afghanistan in February.

The data shows that the February casualties are slightly less than what was reported by TOLOnews in January.  

This comes as the fate of the peace process is uncertain and concerns over the coming spring "fighting season" are elevated.

TOLOnews' data was confirmed by independent sources to prepare this report.