"Our reading is that it is some sort of a tentative exercise. One has to see this in the background of the roadmap or peace plan which has been talked about through the High Peace Council which has been engaged and has done some exchange of messages between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Arabs," a top government official said.
"I think it is a little premature to come to any judgement," the official said adding it was important to see whether the participation of the Taliban was representative of critical groups within that organisation.
"I would say somewhat interesting new dimensions are being given to one of the many channels trying to find new ways of communication on the road to 2014 period," the official said.
He said as per the information available with India, the Afghan parliament had summoned the Foreign Minister seeking explanation about the meeting.
"From their reply, it would seem this was a very tentative step. It was, in fact, not an initiative in which the government was deeply involved," the official said.
"I would say this is an initiative which has been in the works for quite some time. It is very tentative and it still remains to be seen whether the participants were well represented".
