Maulawi Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a participant of the Taliban’s Ulema gathering in Kabul, said today that geography can be possessed by suicide attackers and car bombs, but people’s hearts can’t be won with these tactics.
Referring to the Eid Al-fitr occasion, when the Taliban had announced Eid a day before the other Islamic countries, he said that religious scholars first chanted the Eid prayers, and then, upheld their fast again. He called on the Taliban not to issue irrelevant fatwas.
During his speech, he added that the “current Islamic government is unique, but we know that it can’t be like prophet Mohammad’s system”.
On the first day of the event, Maulawi Habibullah Haqqani, chairman of the Taliban’s gathering, asked participants to obey Hibatullah Akhundazada with “firm resolve”.
Most of the speakers of the Ulema gathering have emphasized on supporting the Taliban government.
All participants of the Taliban’s Ulema gathering pledged allegiance to the group’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada on Friday, according to Bakhtar, a Taliban-controlled news agency.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, Taliban’s acting interior minister, at the beginning of the second day’s meeting, announced the presence of Hibatullah Akhundzada at the Loya Jirga tent in Kabul, the venue of the gathering.
However, no photo or video recording of the meeting depicting the presence of the group’s leader has been released, so far. The Taliban has banned reporters from attending the gathering.
The presence of Akhundzada is significant as no photos or videos of the group’s supreme leader have been released in the ten months since the Taliban's dominance over Afghanistan.
To add to the mystery, recently, former Afghan spy chief Rahmatullah Nabil, published a Taliban video and claimed that the group portrayed a man named Mullah Hamdullah as Hibatullah Akhundzada.
Based on his sources, Mr. Nabil claimed that Mullah Hamdullah was the same person who delivered a speech during Eid al -Fitr on April 30th earlier this year and appeared in the role of the Taliban’s supreme leader at the Hakimia School of Kandahar last year.
The former spy chief said that the same person may appear in the Taliban Ulema gathering under the false guise of Mullah Hibatullah.
The Taliban’s acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, emphasised that change in Afghanistan can only be achieved through cooperation with the group during a meeting with Thomas West, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan, on Thursday.
He added that putting pressure on the Taliban will not be effective and that the Taliban have prevented terrorist threats from Afghanistan.
The spokesperson of the Taliban's foreign ministry, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, stated via Twitter that Muttaqi’s conversation with the US representative about working with the Taliban to achieve changes in Afghanistan "must be accompanied by a positive spirit and cooperation and they should not resort to pressure tactics.”
The Taliban's foreign ministry quoted West as saying that "the United States is in favour of engagement, a stable Afghanistan and does not support armed opposition [in this country]."
The United States has asked the Taliban to respect human rights, especially the rights of women in Afghanistan, and to agree to the formation of an inclusive government in the country. Washington wants the Taliban to cut ties with major terrorist groups that are currently present in Afghanistan.
After the recent earthquake in the southeast region of Afghanistan, the US government not only provided 55 million dollars in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan but also started negotiations with the Taliban on the creation of a mechanism for using Afghanistan's frozen foreign exchange reserves by the group.
Representatives from the White House, US Treasury Department and United States Agency for International Development were present during the two-day meeting in Doha in addition to West and others.
Maulawi Habibullah Haqqani, chairman of the Taliban’s Ulema gathering held in Kabul today, asked participants to obey the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada with a "firm resolve”. Haqqani added that their leader is “an example of the Rashidun Caliphs".
According to Haqqani "disagreement with the government is an impermissible act”. However, the Taliban’s supreme leader wasn’t present at the gathering.
The Taliban’s three-day Ulema gathering kicked off on Thursday, June 30, at the Loya Jirga tent with the participation of 3,500 tribal elders and Ulema, as claimed by the group.
The first day started with the speech of Mullah Hassan Akhund, the Taliban’s PM. “Those who fought with Mujahideen [Taliban], were forgiven, but they didn’t stop and are still making problems for the nation”, he said in his speech, pointing to the armed opposition groups. In fact, most of the speakers of the gathering, emphasized on supporting the Taliban government. Mullah Hassan Akhund said that supporting the Taliban government is the responsibility of Ulema and tribal elders.
Haqqani also asked Taliban officials to have the will to serve Islam and Afghanistan sincerely. He emphasized on the obedience of the people to the government and said that “obedience in an Islamic government is an important principle and we must obey pious elders with sincerity and honesty in all affairs”.
While the Ulema gathering was held without the presence of the media, sources tell Afghanistan International that journalists were gathered at the Intercontinental hotel, within proximity of the gathering. It was only the Taliban spokespersons who provided them with information from the gathering.
According to the rules of the Ulema meeting, independent journalists are not allowed to enter the Loya Jirga tent and only Taliban-controlled media have the right to keep audio recordings from the meeting.
According to Information which has been leaked to the media, the talks have centred around supporting the Taliban government, calling the resistance against the group a rebellion, supporting independence and commitment to peace and national interest.
Bakhtar News Agency, the Taliban-controlled media organisation, have alleged that Maulawi Abdul Hakim Haqqani, chief justice of the Supreme Court, asked the Ulema to covey to the public at mosques, villages, and madrassas that resistance against the Islamic government is prohibited.
Maulawi Mujeeb ur Rahman Ansari, Imam of Gazar Gah mosque in Herat province, said during the Ulema Gathering earlier today: “anyone who opposes the current government [Taliban], should be beheaded”.
Ansari, who was a critic of the former government, announced his support of the Taliban and harshly warned the group’s oppositions, reported Taliban-controlled media network, Bakhtar News Agency.
Taliban’s chief justice, Abdul Hakim Haqqani known for his extremist views, also warned the opposition groups. Haqqani stated that disagreement with the Islamic government is an impermissible act and should be avoided.
Maulawi Habibullah Haqqani, head of this assembly of the Taliban, has also told the participants that their supreme leader should be obeyed with resolution.
The Taliban has claimed that over 3,000 scholars and tribal elders participated in the assembly, but no image of the participants has been published yet.
As per the Bakhtar News Agency reports, Mullah Hassan Akhund, Taliban’s Prime Minister; Abdul Hakim Haqqani, Taliban’s chief justice and Maulawi Mujib ur Rahman Ansari were the first speakers of Thursday’s assembly. Maulawi Habibullah Haqqani has been touted as the one responsible for leading the Taliban Ulema gathering.
It was announced that the gathering would discuss economic, social, and national issues, however, till now, only discussions regarding warnings to the opposition groups have been reported.
The National Resistance Front (NRF) and the Supreme Council of National Resistance for the Salvation of Afghanistan rejected the gathering of Ulema and tribal elders that started in Kabul today.
The two leading opposition groups stated that the gathering is aimed at gaining legitimacy for the Taliban whose reign is based on fear, force, and reluctance.
The statements from the two main opposition groups of the Taliban emphasized on the formation of an inclusive interim government and elections as the solution for a peaceful settlement in Afghanistan.
The Supreme Council of National Resistance for the Salvation of Afghanistan, with politicians included as members, such as Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum, Atta Mohammad Noor, Mohammad Mohaqiq, and Salahuddin Rabbani, announced in a statement that the Taliban's goal of convening the Ulema and the tribal elders’ gathering is to approve the group’s proposed "constitution and appointment of the group’s supreme leader or Amir al-Mu'minin".
The leaders of the National Resistance for the Salvation of Afghanistan, who are mainly living in Turkey after the fall of the Republic, expected that under domestic and international pressures, the Taliban would give in to the formation of an inclusive government with their own participation.
The National Resistance for the Salvation of Afghanistan’s statement added that through the gathering, the Taliban wants to send a message globally that they enjoy a national support base, however, the council stressed that the only acceptable option ahead for a peaceful settlement in Afghanistan is the "initiation of peace negotiations and the formation of an all-inclusive provisional government, followed by an elected political system."
The National Resistance Front, led by Ahmad Masoud, has also announced its opposition to the Taliban's gathering.
However, the NRF accuses the Taliban of an "instrumental use of religion" to deceive domestic and foreign public opinion.
These two main groups opposing the Taliban, asked the Afghan people and foreign countries, to not be deceived by such efforts of the group.
Meanwhile, the Taliban started the Ulema and tribal elders’ gathering in Kabul without the presence of prominent Afghan politicians, even though they had confirmed in the Doha talks that after the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan, the group would start an intra-Afghan dialogue with all Afghan political figures and fronts.