Mullah Baradar Visits Quake-hit Paktika, Khost Provinces After a Week
Mullah Baradar, Taliban’s deputy prime minister visited earthquake-hit provinces of Paktika and Khost on Tuesday, a week after the disaster struck the region on June 22. Taliban’s office of first deputy PM announced that Baradar took 53 million afghanis in cash along with them.
This cash aid will be distributed transparently by the commission of disaster management of the Taliban, the office added.
According to Taliban’s statement, Mullah Baradar promised victims that the government will cooperate with the people, oversee that their houses are rebuilt, send in more economic aid and help them return to their normal life.
Pictures shared show Khalil Haqqani, Taliban’s minister of refugees and one of the senior members of Haqqani network members, along with Mullah Baradar. This is for the first time that Mullah Baradar and Khalil Haqqani have been seen together in the past 10 months, ever since there were reports of their dispute in the Arg (presidential palace of Afghanistan).
Meanwhile, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that they have appealed for USD 110 million for emergency aid for the victims of the earthquake in Afghanistan for the next three months. It added that 362,000 people have been affected in Khost and Paktika provinces.
