Senior Taliban Official Urges Exiled Leaders To Return, Vows Safety
A senior Taliban official has called on prominent exiled Afghan political and jihadi leaders to return home, promising they will be protected under a general amnesty.
A senior Taliban official has called on prominent exiled Afghan political and jihadi leaders to return home, promising they will be protected under a general amnesty.
Shahabuddin Delawar, head of the Taliban’s Commission for Contact with Afghan Political Figures, made the appeal at a gathering in Kabul on Tuesday. Addressing veteran jihadi commander Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf by name, he said, “Ustad Sayyaf will either die in Türkiye or India; it is better for him to return to his homeland.”
Delawar extended similar invitations to former vice-presidential candidate Mohammad Mohaqiq, former vice-president Karim Khalili and former Balkh governor Ata Mohammad Noor, assuring them that their “life, property and security” would be guaranteed. “If these figures care about Afghanistan and want a dignified life, they should return to the country,” he told the audience.
He added that, apart from private civil claims, “no legal action” would be taken against returnees, noting that Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has granted them amnesty “even if they committed injustices in the past”.
The Taliban’s commission says it has already issued security guarantees to some former officials and members of the previous security forces. Yet, nearly four years after the Taliban seized Kabul, none of the most prominent political figures from the former government have accepted the offer to return.
Those leaders continue to reject Taliban legitimacy, arguing that the group demands allegiance rather than genuine dialogue. They insist they will not come back without a negotiated political settlement, the formation of an inclusive national government and an end to Taliban dominance. Many have pledged to pursue both political and armed resistance instead.
Their distrust has been deepened, they say, by cases in which former officials invited back by the Taliban were reportedly detained and prosecuted on arrival.
