Taliban Members Criticise Leader, Say He Acts As Prophet

Tahir Andrabi, Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said on Saturday, May 2, that Islamabad had taken note of Lindsay’s comments on social media regarding developments along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Criticising the UK envoy’s stance, Andrabi said that despite Pakistan’s goodwill in temporarily halting strikes against the Afghan Taliban, cross-border incursions and attempts by militants to infiltrate from Afghan territory have continued.

Pakistan said that since suspending its operations, cross-border attacks by the Afghan Taliban and activities by what it described as Indian-backed militants inside Pakistan have resulted in 52 civilian deaths and 84 injuries.

Lindsay, who visited Kabul last week and met Taliban officials, had called for reduced tensions and renewed dialogue between the Taliban and Pakistan, saying there is no sustainable military solution.

He also urged the immediate reopening of border crossings for humanitarian aid deliveries, warning that continued restrictions could deprive more than one million women and children of access to food and healthcare.

Lindsay said he had emphasised the importance of reducing tensions with Pakistan and resuming talks, and expressed his condolences for all civilian casualties, whether caused by militant attacks or military operations.

In response, Andrabi said Pakistan had exercised restraint but responded effectively to attacks, thwarting several infiltrations attempts from Afghan territory through what he described as precise strikes on Taliban positions and militant infrastructure.

He dismissed Taliban claims of civilian casualties from Pakistani attacks as lacking credible evidence.

Andrabi concluded: “Such unwarranted remarks, without linking them to the root cause of terrorism, do not offer a balanced and objective perspective.”

He urged the UK envoy to better understand the regional context and Pakistan’s firm stance against terrorism.

Relations between the Taliban and Pakistan remain strained, with no clear resolution in sight despite regional efforts to ease tensions.

The group said the Taliban may believe the site’s proximity to a civilian market could deter Pakistan from carrying out airstrikes.

It warned residents that a number of foreign armed individuals have also been deployed in the same area.

Addressing local residents, the group urged them to ask the Taliban to relocate the military depot or take other measures.

Afghanistan Green Trend said the Bagh-e Qazi area has never previously hosted a military storage site and described the move as part of a new Taliban pattern of placing military assets near civilian locations.

It added that the Taliban have long used women and children as human shields and claimed such tactics are not new, recalling images of fighters disguising themselves during the previous government.

Taliban officials have not commented on the claims.

The Taliban said the land is located in the area of Ismail Khel and Mandozai districts.

In a statement on Saturday May 2, the ministry said the land had previously been identified as state property by the commission for preventing land grabbing.

According to the statement, the central zone special court reviewed documents, heard claims from individuals asserting ownership, and consulted relevant authorities before concluding that the land is rain-fed, uncultivated and recorded as state-owned in cadastral records.

The ruling states that the entire area belongs to the state and instructs the land recovery commission to take legal steps to reclaim and manage it.

The ministry added that efforts to identify, verify and reclaim state land across the country are continuing, with commissions and special courts making decisions based on documentation.

In a statement, the commission said that of those returned, 1,033 had been transferred from Kabul to various provinces across Afghanistan.

The detention and deportation of Afghan migrants from cities across Pakistan has recently intensified.

Reuters previously reported that hundreds of vehicles carrying Afghan migrants had been stranded near the Torkham crossing due to ongoing tensions between the Taliban and Pakistan.

Afghan migrants, including women and children, have been waiting for several days to cross the border.

Since 2023, Pakistan has deported more than two million Afghan migrants out of an estimated three million. Many are second- and third-generation refugees whose families had settled in Pakistan decades ago.

Writing on X on Friday, May 1, Tarar said Taliban attacks on civilian areas reflected weakness and poor moral standards within the group’s leadership.

Without specifying the exact timing, he said local officials in Bajaur reported that at least 12 civilians, including six women and children, were killed and 12 others injured in attacks by the Afghan Taliban and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan(TTP).

His remarks come as Taliban officials have repeatedly accused the Pakistani military of targeting civilians inside Afghanistan.

Tarar rejected those allegations as baseless and misleading, insisting that Pakistan’s operations target only the infrastructure and hideouts of what he described as terrorist groups.