Taliban Deputy Says Not in Talks with Government

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http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5691339&cKey=1113651326000

KABUL (Reuters) - A leader of Afghanistan's ousted Talibanmovement has rejected as baseless reports that he has heldreconciliation talks with President Hamid Karzai's government.

Mawlavi Abdul Kabir, thought now to be number two in theTaliban hierarchy after its fugitive leader Mullah MohamadOmar, also dismissed reports of rifts among remnants of thehardline Islamic movement overthrown by U.S.-led forces in late2001.

Afghan Chief Justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari said recently thatsenior Taliban figures, including Kabir, were in touch with himabout giving up the insurgency they have waged for the pastthree-and-a-half years since being driven from power.

In an audio message played to Reuters by satellite phone byTaliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi, Kabir rejected this.

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