Kabul: The Taliban’s hyper-reclusive supreme leader made a rare public appearance Wednesday, an Afghan government spokesman said, berating the international community in a speech for criticizing his rule.
Hibatullah Akhundzada has made only a handful of public appearances since inheriting the leadership of the Taliban in 2016 and leading the movement back to power with the withdrawal of US forces in 2021.
Over the past three years the bearded “Emir” of the Taliban has ruled by decree, enforcing an austere vision of Islam largely ostracizing Afghanistan on the world stage.
In a 35-minute audio address, released by a Taliban government spokesman, Akhundzada said countries involved in the US-led invasion were still attacking Afghanistan with “propaganda” and “evil tactics.”
“Today, they want to divide you,” he said, according to the audio address. “They blame the leaders as defective, saying they are not able to govern.”
“Don’t let these infidels mislead you,” he added. “Stay alert for them, they will trick you, they want to fail you.”
“I will not take even a step away from the Islamic law,” he pledged.
Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Akhundzada’s address marking the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Fitr in the largest mosque of southern Kandahar province “was attended by thousands of compatriots.”
An AFP source who attended the service said Akhundzada was not visible to large crowds in the courtyard of the complex, but a voice over a loudspeaker introduced the sermon as his words.
Tight security restricted access to the main worship mall, the source said, though several high-ranking Taliban officials claimed on social media they had met the Taliban chief on Wednesday.
There is only one photograph of Akhundzada. The press have generally been barred from attending his public engagements and Afghan attendees forbidden from taking photos or recording on their phones.
While the Taliban government ostensibly sits in the capital Kabul, Akhundzada operates from hideouts in Kandahar — considered the heartland of the Islamist movement.
Since the fall of the foreign-backed government in August 2021, his Taliban administration has ushered in curbs on women and girls which the United Nations has condemned as “gender apartheid.”
Unease over dealing with the Taliban government has seen foreign aid nosedive, dramatically worsening what was already one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Kabul’s Taliban rulers insist they want friendly relations with other countries, but say they will not cave to pressure over human rights concerns about their domestic policies.
The religious affairs ministry issued instructions that during Wednesday prayer Afghan imams should read out a message published by Akhundzada earlier in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
“We seek diplomatic and economic relations with all nations,” it said, while adding, “we expect and demand respect for Afghanistan’s sovereignty, integrity, and dignity.”
Akhundzada previously appeared in Kandahar in 2022 to mark Eid Al-Fitr with a speech congratulating Afghans “on victory, freedom and success,” his back to the crowd to preserve his anonymity.
In the capital Kabul, the third Eid Al-Fitr festivities under the Taliban government were accompanied by heightened security.
Extra checkpoints were erected around mosques as morning prayers began, with police and Taliban government security forces deployed and mobile phone signals disrupted.
Security forces prevented AFP journalists from recording services at numerous sites in Kabul.
Nonetheless, worshippers gathered in the thousands, spilling out into the streets as mosques were packed to capacity.
Taliban leader hits back at global critics in rare address
https://arab.news/yngcg
Taliban leader hits back at global critics in rare address
- Hibatullah Akhundzada has made only a handful of public appearances since inheriting the leadership of the Taliban in 2016
Afghanistan says it thwarted Pakistani airstrike on Bagram Air Base as fighting enters fourth day
- The fighting has been the most severe between the neighbors for years
- Pakistan accuses Taliban government of harboring militant groups that stage attacks against it
KABUL: Afghanistan thwarted attempted airstrikes on Bagram Air Base, the former US military base north of Kabul, authorities said Sunday, while cross-border fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan stretched into a fourth day.
The fighting has been the most severe between the neighbors for years, with Pakistan declaring that it’s in “open war” with Afghanistan.
The conflict has alarmed the international community, particularly as the area is one where other militant organizations, including Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group, still have a presence and have been trying to resurface.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harboring militant groups that stage attacks against it and also of allying with its archrival India.
Border clashes in October killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants until a Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the intense fighting. But several rounds of peace talks in Turkiye in November failed to produce a lasting agreement, and the two sides have occasionally traded fire since then.
On Sunday, the police headquarters of Parwan province, where Bagram is located, said in a statement that several Pakistani military jets had entered Afghan airspace “and attempted to bomb Bagram Air Base” at around 5 a.m.
The statement said Afghan forces responded with “anti-aircraft and missile defense systems” and had managed to thwart the attack.
There was no immediate response from Pakistan’s military or government regarding Kabul’s claim of attempted airstrikes on Bagram or the ongoing fighting.
Bagram was the United States’ largest military base in Afghanistan. It was taken over by the Taliban as they swept across the country and took control in the wake of the chaotic US withdrawal from the country in 2021. Last year, US President Donald Trump suggested he wanted to reestablish a US presence at the base.
The current fighting began when Afghanistan launched a broad cross-border attack on Thursday night, saying it was in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes the previous Sunday.
Pakistan had said its airstrike had targeted the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. Afghanistan had said only civilians were killed.
The TTP militant group, which is separate but closely allied with Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, operates inside Pakistan, where it has been blamed for hundreds of deaths in bombings and other attacks over the years.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of providing a safe haven within Afghanistan for the TTP, an accusation that Afghanistan denies.
After Thursday’s Afghan attack, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif declared that “our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us.”
In the ongoing fighting, each side claims to have killed hundreds of the other side’s forces — and both governments put their own casualties at drastically lower numbers.
Two Pakistani security officials said that Pakistani ground forces were still in control on Sunday of a key Afghan post and a 32-square-kilometer area in the southern Zhob sector near Kandahar province, after having seized it during fighting Friday. The captured post and surrounding area remain under Pakistani control, they added. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
In Kabul, the Afghan government rejected Pakistan’s claims. Deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat called the reports “baseless.”
Afghan officials said that fighting had continued overnight and into Sunday in the border areas.
The police command spokesman for Nangarhar province, Said Tayyeb Hammad, said that anti-aircraft missiles were used from the provincial capital, Jalalabad, and surrounding areas on Pakistani fighter jets flying overhead Sunday morning.
Defense Ministry spokesman Enayatulah Khowarazmi said that Afghan forces had launched counterattacks with snipers across the border from Nangarhar, Paktia, Khost and Kandahar provinces overnight. He said that two Pakistani drones had been shot down and dozens of Pakistani soldiers had been killed.
Fitrat said that Pakistani drone attacks hit civilian homes in Nangarhar province late Saturday, killing a woman and a child, while mortar fire killed another civilian when it hit a home in Paktia province.
There was no immediate response to the claims from Pakistani officials.
