For years, it has been the Taliban’s position to refuse face-to-face meetings with the Afghan government, and the fact that representatives of both sides were meeting appeared to reflect a softening of that position.

The Afghan Presidential Palace confirmed that a delegation had been sent to Islamabad which, as indicated by reports, was headed by deputy foreign minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai, who earlier held meetings with Taliban representatives in Oslo last month.

A senior Afghan official said US and Chinese officials took part in Tuesday’s meeting as observers.

Silent throughout the process has been Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban’s reclusive supreme leader who has not been seen in public since the Taliban was toppled.

However, the Afghan Taliban spokesperson denied having any knowledge of the talks in Islamabad.

Sources in Ghani’s office described the meeting as crucial because it showed the Taliban were ready to negotiate directly with the government they have been battling since they were ousted from power by the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. Taliban and government representatives have met informally in the past, through a recent series of encounters hosted by Qatar and Norway.

Ghani’s office announced Tuesday that a delegation from the government’s High Peace Council traveled to Islamabad to hold the talks.

The High Peace Council (HPC) is the body tasked with opening negotiations with the militants.

Although the election of a new president has brought significant changes to the region, the violence still runs strong, but president Ashraf Ghani has had his hands full trying to control a ground game that has distinguished itself via corruption, and numerous Afghan fighters on the ground blame leadership in Kabul for the continued bloodying of various checkpoints and “safe” territory.

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ended its combat mission at the end of December, leaving Afghan forces to battle the resurgent Taliban on their own. A spokeswoman for the US embassy in Kabul couldn’t immediately comment on the issue.

“The participants agreed to continue talks to create an environment conducive for peace and reconciliation process”, the Pakistani government said in a statement Wednesday.

According to The Guardian, the Islamabad talks are to take place over iftar-an evening meal at which Muslims break their Ramadan fast.

The US-led military coalition said there were no fatalities, but declined to give further details.

Hours later, insurgents tried to storm a compound of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency in eastern Kabul but were repelled by security forces.

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But there have been no major breakthroughs and the militants have kept up their barrage of attacks on foreign and Afghan forces.