Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 21, 2021
The Taliban’s senior leadership is reportedly gathering in Kabul to map out a future government following the hard-line Islamist group’s return to the Afghan capital.
The August 21 gathering will take place as the Taliban attempts to present a more moderate image after regaining control over most of the country as U.S.-led forces evacuate following nearly two decades of war.
A senior Taliban official told AFP on condition of anonymity that Taliban co-founder and political-office head Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar would meet in Kabul with “jihadi leaders and politicians for an inclusive government set-up.”
Reuters, meanwhile, quoted an unidentified Taliban official as saying that Baradar was in Afghanistan to “delegate responsibility to commanders, meet former government leaders, local militia commanders, policymakers, and religious scholars.”
The official told the news agency that the Taliban planned to set up separate teams to deal with internal security and the country’s financial crisis.
The meeting of Taliban leadership is expected to include a top official of the Haqqani network, which has ties to the Taliban and has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States.
The Taliban have promised “positively different” rule compared to its last stint in power in Afghanistan from 1996-2001, when it ruled with a strict, fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law.
With the militant group’s return to power concerns have been expressed about a return to harsh conditions for religious minorities and women, who were excluded from public life.
The Taliban has promised a general amnesty for anyone who worked with the U.S.-backed government, but there have been worrying reports of the militants hunting down journalists as well as former Afghan troops and government officials.
The international rights watchdog Amnesty International has said that Taliban fighters last month “massacred” and brutally tortured several members of Afghanistan’s mainly Shi’ite Hazara minority, in what the watchdog called a “horrifying indicator” of the hard-line Sunni militant group’s rule.
The Taliban official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity on August 21 said that the group plans to present a new model for governing Afghanistan in the next few weeks.
The official said the new framework worked out by legal, religious, and foreign-policy experts would not be a democracy, but would “protect everyone’s rights.”
The Taliban would investigate reports of violence carried out by its members, according to the official.
“We have heard of some cases of atrocities and crimes against civilians,” he told Reuters. “If Talibs [members] are doing these law and order problems, they will be investigated.”
Based on AFP, Reuters, and TASS