Gulbuddin Hekmatyar Sent Team to Kabul

KABUL, March 22, 2010 -- A leading Afghan insurgent group met with President Hamid Karzai today to propose a way to end the war in Afghanistan, one of the most formal bids for peace offered to the Afghan government since the war began.

The group, Hizb-i-Islami, proposed pulling foreign troops out of Afghanistan beginning this summer, replacing the parliament with an interim government, and holding new national elections by next year, according to Waheed Mujda, a political analyst in Kabul who met with the delegation.

The delegation was sent to Kabul by the group's leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who directs thousands of fighters in eastern and northeastern Afghanistan. United States military officials hold his group responsible for countless strikes on American troops, including two of the deadliest attacks of the war in which two outposts were virtually overrun and 17 soldiers died.

Hizb-i-Islami is the second largest insurgent group fighting in Afghanistan, and while Afghan and American officials say a deal would not end the fighting, it could reduce the violence in eastern Afghanistan and help divide the militancy.

It could also accelerate efforts by Karzai to find a political solution for the war, which have increased in recent months. His government is holding a major conference in late April or early May to encourage fighters to lay down their arms. Already, according to tribal leaders from Kandahar, Karzai is reaching out to Taliban shadow governors in militant strongholds to try and convince them to participate in parliamentary elections this September.

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"This is just the beginning of something," Masoom Stanekzai, who leads Karzai's efforts toward reconciliation, told ABC News. He argued the talks were not as formal as have been reported, but he said, "It is a good sign that the people who are fighting want to end the bloodshed."

But while refusing to confirm the details of the proposal, Stanekzai seemed to reject the Hizb-i-Islami demands, which would essentially rewrite the Afghan constitution.