Speaking during a ceremony to mark the religious festival of Eid, Mr Karzai said he had made a direct plea to Mullah Omar, the cleric who has overseen the Taliban’s revival across Afghanistan’s Pashtun heartland. “A few days ago I called upon their leader, Mullah Omar, and said ‘My brother, my dear, come back to your homeland, come and work for the peace and good of your people and stop killing your brothers’.”