Afghanistan has opened a four-day-long Loya Jirga or 'Grand Assembly' in Kabul under tight security, with 3200 delegates from across the country participating.
Roads leading to the assembly arena were closed to traffic starting on Sunday evening. A large number checkpoints manned by Afghan police and army were erected throughout the city.
The assembly members are to take part in consultations aimed at forming a national consensus and common negotiating position - including their red lines - for possible peace negotiations with the Taliban.
According to assembly organisers, between 30 to 35 per cent of the participants will be women.
Mohammad Omar Daudzai, the head of the Afghan High Peace Council (HPC), and the chief Assembly organiser, thanked the Taliban for allowing people to participate from areas under their control.
Key politicians, including former President Hamid Karzai, Chief Executive of Afghanistan, Abdullah Abdullah, former head of the National Security Council and presidential candidate, Haneef Atmar are among those boycotting the Jirga.
In a statement, Karzai on Saturday had said that the assembly must help Afghans in creating, "an atmosphere of trust, and grounds for peace, not the opposite."
Abdullah ruled out his attendance on the grounds that his team had not been consulted prior to the decision to hold the assembly.
The Afghan Taliban have said that the assembly is, "part of exhibitory efforts by the stooges of America in a continuous process of fooling the nation."
The government has been making an effort to sit down with the Taliban, the country's main insurgent group, in order to find a peaceful solution to the decades-long conflict.
