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  ‘Rift’ in Taliban over Pakistan

‘Rift’ in Taliban over Pakistan

ANI
Published : Oct 24, 2016, 4:22 am IST
Updated : Oct 24, 2016, 4:22 am IST

A key Taliban commander and close aide to former Taliban founder and leader Mullah Omar has asked the group’s present chief Mawlavi Haibatullah Akhundzada to break all ties with Pakistan.

AGHA.jpg
 AGHA.jpg

A key Taliban commander and close aide to former Taliban founder and leader Mullah Omar has asked the group’s present chief Mawlavi Haibatullah Akhundzada to break all ties with Pakistan.

The top Taliban leader, Syed Mohammad Tayyab Agha, reportedly in a letter asked Mr Akhundzada to cut ties with Pakistan, reports Khaama Press. “How can the Taliban leadership, now camped in Pakistan, demand that people in Afghanistan or elsewhere pledge allegiance to them ” he wrote, confirming that the insurgent movement’s leaders still operate from safe havens in Pakistan. “Can we consider such acts in accordance with Islam ” asked Mr Agha, who relinquished his position as head of the Taliban’s political office in Qatar last year.

He also urges Mr Akhundzada to give up the title of Amir al-Muminin or Leader of The Faithful and to drop the Taliban’s formal name, Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

“It will be better to employ the term ‘movement’ instead of ‘emirate’,” he wrote. “A reliance on media propaganda and forming (shadow) government institutions, control of rural territories, and most of the movement’s leaders being in a foreign country (Pakistan) doesn’t amount to a (legitimate) government in our country,” he wrote.

Questioning the Taliban’s current strategy, which relies on overrunning rural territories and urban attacks that often result in a high number of civilian casualties, Mr Agha urged Mr Akhundzada, “You should give up using violence and intimidation to force people to pledge their allegiance to you as the commander of the faithful until you can meet all the requirements (outlined in Islamic Sharia law).”

This comes as first contact after the breakdown of talks backed by Islamabad between Kabul and the Taliban in May.

A three-member delegation from the Taliban’s Qatar office is currently in Pakistan to meet authorities over talks linked to the Afghan peace process. The visit comes days after Taliban leaders reportedly held informal meetings with Afghan and the US officials in Qatar.

Location: Afghanistan, Kabol, Kabul