DOHA: A Qatar-based Taliban leader has claimed that all Al Qaeda operatives have left Afghanistan and have either gone back home or moved into war zones in Syria, Iraq or Yemen.
Asked about Al Qaeda’s top operative Ayman Al Zawahiri, he said no one knew of his whereabouts.
“Afghanistan is such a big country. Everyone knows there are mountains and valleys in Afghanistan so it is difficult to know where he is,” said Dr Mohamed Naeem (pictured), a spokesman of Taliban Politburo in Qatar, in an interview with
Al Sharq.
About reports that Taliban leader Mullah Omar was dead, Naeem said it was just a rumour. “He is alive and doing his work. He is leading the Holy War against the occupants and keeps meeting his aides”.
When asked if Taliban still had links with Al Qaeda, Naeem said its leaders and functionaries had all left Afghanistan and had either gone back home or moved into war zones in Syria, Iraq or Yemen. “There is not even a single Al Qaeda leader left in Afghanistan.”
In response to a question about the present government in Kabul inviting Taliban for talks, Naeem said it wasn’t an invitation for talks, it was rather a call to surrender. “If that were not true why the government would invite us for talks and at the same time continue to ink deals with foreigners to consolidate its rule?”
Asked if their only demand to come to the negotiating table was that foreign forces have fully withdrawn, Naeem replied in the affirmative and said: “That’s our demand without doubt”.
The self-respecting people of Afghanistan want foreign forces to leave their country. They want their complete withdrawal, the spokesman said.
He said in a long-winding interview: “We want an independent Afghanistan where there is an Islamic rule”.
“The present government is not working for the country and its people. It is working to make the occupants of Afghanistan happy”.
Replying to a question about internecine bickering in Taliban, the spokesman said the talk was baseless and the rumours were being spread by the media hostile to Muslims and Islam.
“The aim of such rumours is to boost the morale of Afghan forces that are collapsing and demoralise Taliban fighters. The fact is that the might of Taliban fighters is on the rise as ever.”
Naeem denied that there was a tacit understanding between Taliban and the US as the latter has removed the outfit from its list of terror outfits. “How can it be true? They targeted and killed us.”
About reports that Mullah Omar was dead, Naeem said the “enemy” kept spreading such rumours to hide their failure to finish Taliban and end the cultivation of opium.
Even after more than a decade, both these objectives of the “enemy” remain a dream and the fact is that Taliban is much stronger today than it was 20 years ago. “And opium cultivation is on the rise.”
Naeem claimed that thousands of soldiers of the Alliance Forces were mentally disturbed and thousands had run away. The “enemy” wants to boost the morale of its forces.
The Peninsula
