A senior Afghan Taliban leader has been detained in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Balochistan province, a Pakistani newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The Taliban are not honouring the peace pact they signed with America in February, says the US permanent representative to NATO. “Well, first of all, we never thought this peace process would be easy, and clearly it has not been,” Ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison told an online news conference in Brussels.

The Afghan government and Taliban peace talks teams announced Wednesday that they had finalized the rules and procedures for the intra-Afghan talks and will start discussing the agenda.

The United States, European Union (EU), UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the British Embassy in Kabul were among many who welcomed Wednesday’s announcement of a breakthrough in the Doha peace talks and say they hope this leads to a ceasefire.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) on Thursday said the Khateeb (preacher) of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and head of Islamic Scholars Council of Palestine has termed the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan as illegitimate.

The Afghan ambassador in Islamabad says the use of Afghan territory will not be allowed against Pakistan. Najibullah Ali Khel held out the assurance at a meeting with Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on National Security Dr Moeed Yusuf.

The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) has underlined an end to the war in neighbouring Afghanistan. At a massive rally in Balochistan’s border town of Chaman on Friday also sought an immediate end to extrajudicial killings in Pakistan.

Thirty-six Taliban insurgents have been killed and several others wounded in clashes in Herat and Nangarhar provinces, local officials said on Saturday. Attaullah Khogyani, the Nangarhar governor’s spokesman, said the Afghan Air Force (AAF) raided Taliban’s hideouts in the Zavi area of Khogyani district last night.

At least 535 kilograms of narcotics have been seized in northeastern Badakhshan province, an official said on Saturday.

NATO foreign ministers concluded a two-day meeting on December 2 that paves a path for reforms within the transatlantic alliance as it faces twin challenges from Russia and China, as well as key decisions about the situation in Afghanistan.