Afghan President Hamid Karzai took the opportunity of the Muslim Eid festival, which started yesterday, to once again publicly call on Taliban-led rebels to end their insurgency.
Karzai said the Taliban insurgency was being directed by "strangers."
Karzai made the call after leading some of his cabinet and other officials to Eid al-Adha prayers in a busy mosque in the center of the city.
Normally, Karzai prays inside the heavily defended presidential compound because of security reasons.
"I call upon those who are still committing acts against their land, those who are still acting on orders of strangers in the destruction of their land, to give up fighting," Karzai told reporters.
The president this month accused the government of Pakistan of trying to turn his countrymen into "slaves."
The comment was Karzai's strongest wording yet against Islamabad.
Karzai blames Pakistan for the ongoing wave of insurgent violence in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has angrily denied the allegations.
The insurgency launched after the Taliban were toppled in a US-led offensive in late 2001 has been at its fiercest this year.
Militants have recently shown higher technical sophistication and have repeatedly launched deadly attacks in the heart of the capital.
The violence has claimed nearly 4,000 lives this year alone, with most of the dead rebel fighters.
Karzai has regularly called upon Taliban foot soldiers to lay down their weapons and join in a government reconciliation program.
In his message for Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammand Omar on Friday praised his followers' sacrifices in their campaign and said they would never accept defeat.
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