When the marchers finally encountered four Taliban fighters in the village of Nawzad Rood, it was nearly dusk. They were, Mr. Khyber said, “people just like us. They had the same faces, the same beards, the same clothing and the same customs.”

They are all ethnic Pashtuns, and the Pashtun code of conduct, called Pashtunwali, demands that any traveler seeking refuge, even an enemy, must be treated as a guest. The marchers were banking on that.

The insurgents, unsurprised to see them, produced a document that listed the peace marchers’ names, and checked them off against it to make sure they were the real people. Their hosts were nervous, glancing at the sky and eager to leave, ordering the marchers into cars to drive to a safer place.

Then suddenly, they stopped. Everyone realized the sun had set, so it was time for iftar, the evening meal that breaks the daylong fast, and they drove back to the mosque to eat.

The insurgents shared what they had, canned red beans and buttermilk, and local residents brought fresh bread, the marchers said.

“They apologized for the buttermilk not being cold enough, as ice was very expensive and hard to find,” Mr. Khyber said.

They got back on the road, driving for four hours until the insurgents stopped outside a mud building. Inside were about three dozen members of the Taliban. They were suspicious and hostile at first, Mr. Khyber said, but that changed after a while.