Govt Sees No Reason for Taliban Violence as Foreign Troops Leave

Afghan National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib on Saturday questioned ongoing violence by the Taliban, saying the government does not see any justification for a the violence at a time that the US and NATO forces have started withdrawing from Afghanistan.

“The Taliban is a force that is only seeking power,” Mohib said. “They use different tactics to justify the violence. If they justify the killing of the civilians, they even justify the slavey of an intelligence agency.”

Mohib states that the Taliban gets all their military equipment and explosive materials from the Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

“The Taliban are slaves of the ISI. They get all their equipment and explosions for killing of Afghans and destruction of Afghanistan from there (Pakistan) and the entire world knows about it and the Taliban needs to explain it,” Mohib said.

Mohib said that al Qaeda is playing a key role in keeping the Taliban’s war machine active in Afghanistan.

Taliban has often rejected the allegations that it still maintains close ties with al Qaeda.

“The Taliban claims that no other group can conduct the (war), except them, the Taliban also claim that when they give order, the violence stops and no one is there to launch attack. In this scenario, all responsibilities go to the Taliban,” he said. “But there are also other groups that conduct such activities. You saw the statement of Al Qaeda. Daesh is also operating there, but all these are carrying out their activities in harmony with the Taliban.”

Meanwhile, members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) have reiterated their determination to defend the nation and the country’s borders against any hostile move.

This comes as lawmakers from Ghazni province in the parliament have said that at least 30 security force members gone missing after the Taliban took over their outpost in Arezo village in the city of Ghazni.

Security officials however said that the case is not that much serious and only 17 security force members had been under the siege.

“There was a small outpost in the Arezo village. It was not a base. The outpost has fallen. We are investigating the incident to find out the main reasons. Other forces have been deployed and there is no any major issue there. There were around 17 people from the three security agencies,” Acting Defense Minister Gen. Yasin Zia said.

This comes weeks after US President Joe Biden announced his intention to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021.