The Supreme State Council, which the government and political leaders have been working to finalize over the last few weeks, will begin functioning by the end of this week, said Enayatullah Babur Farahmand, an aide to Abdullah Abdullah. He said the council will deal with Afghanistan's foreign policies among other national issues. This contradicts earlier remarks by President Ashraf Ghani's national security adviser who said the council will focus only on peace.

The mandate of the council, the number of its members, and whether it will focus exclusively on peace or other national issues have been the main issues debated by politicians who would be members of the council. Ghani’s aides have said the council will have at least 21 members, including four women, while some politicians, including Hekmatyar, have pushed for a smaller number.

A new wave of violence in five provinces over the last 24 hours killed at least 20 civilians and wounded 34 others.

One of the incidents was a magnetic IED blast that targeted a bus carrying lecturers and employees of Alberoni University in Parwan province on Saturday evening. Maiwand Frooq Nijrabi, a medicine faculty lecturer at the university, was among those killed in the incident along with three of his colleagues. He was laid to rest in Kabul on Monday. 17 more people were reportedly wounded in the incident.