British secret agents secretly held talks with Taliban leaders

Despite British Prime Minister Gordon Browns public pledge that his government would not hold any negotiations with terrorists, it has been revealed that British MI6 agents held up to half a dozen meetings with the Taliban in Lashkah Gah and villages in the Upper Gereshk Valley in Afghanistan during this summer.

London, Dec 26 : Despite British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's public pledge that his government would not hold any negotiations with terrorists, it has been revealed that British MI6 agents held up to half a dozen meetings with the Taliban in Lashkah Gah and villages in the Upper Gereshk Valley in Afghanistan during this summer.

"The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) officers were understood to have sought peace directly with the Taliban, with them coming across as some sort of armed militia. The British would also provide 'mentoring' for the Taliban," The Telegraph quoted an intelligence source, as saying.

During such clandestine meetings, British infantry officials provided a security cordon of the compound. Few Afghan officials used to be present during such meeting to maintain the stance that the Afghanistan Government was leading the negotiations.

"These meetings were with up to a dozen Taliban or with Taliban who had only recently laid down their arms," an intelligence source said, adding, "The impression was that these were important motivating figures inside the Taliban."

Earlier, Gordon Brown had denied reports of talks with the Taliban when asked by the Tory leader in Parliament, David Cameron.

However, with these new revelations, Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox said: "If this turns out to be untrue, the Prime Minister will have some explaining to do to the British public."

Britain has said it would support efforts by the Afghan Government to negotiate with tribal fighters now supporting the Taliban - but only if they embraced democracy.

The daily stated that the US was "extremely unhappy with the news becoming public" since it would show that one of its ally was negotiating with terrorists who supported the 9/11 attackers.

Recently, Afghanistan government led by Hamid Karzai asked two diplomats to leave the country after there were allegations against them of hobnobbing with Taliban insurgents without the administration's knowledge.

ANI