PESHAWAR: Two recent media reports about the release of the deputy leader of the Afghan Taliban, Mulla Abdul Ghani Biradar and the visit of a senior Taliban official Mulla Abdul Kabir to Kabul to hold talks with the government of President Hamid Karzai are turning out to be untrue.
Taliban sources said Mulla Biradar hasn’t been released. “The news of his release brought happiness to Taliban leaders and they even exchanged messages to congratulate each other. Then they started waiting for him, but Mulla Biradar still hasn’t reached his family,” a Taliban official told The News.
He said Mulla Biradar’s nephew, who was looking after the family, had conveyed to the Taliban central shura, or council, that his uncle was still in custody of Pakistani authorities. Mulla Biradar’s teenaged son, who too was arrested along with his father, was reportedly freed after spending about three weeks in custody of Pakistani intelligence agents.
Mulla Biradar, in his 50s, was captured from near Karachi early this year. There were reports at the time that he was apprehended by Pakistani authorities on the basis of intelligence information provided by the US. The Pakistan government subsequently refused to deliver him to the Afghan or the US government.
As a friend of Mulla Omar and one of the founders of the Taliban movement, Mulla Biradar held important political and military positions during Taliban rule in Afghanistan. He became the deputy leader to Mulla Omar when Taliban were ousted from power as a result of the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. He was credited with organising the Taliban resistance to the US-led coalition forces. His capture was seen as a blow to the Taliban and was mentioned as evidence that many Taliban leaders were hiding in Pakistan.
The media reports about Mulla Kabir’s journey to Kabul and talks with the Karzai government lacked substance and were unbelievable. It was reported that he had approached the Afghan government
through an intermediary and then agreed to face-to-face meetings in Kabul for concluding a power-sharing deal. In fact, it was even being said General David Petraeus, the US and Nato military commander in Afghanistan, was referring to him when he claimed in a speech in London recently that his forces had given a safe passage to a Taliban leader to travel to Kabul for peace talks. Petraeus didn’t provide the name of the Taliban commander but certain media reports, mostly from the West, then started mentioning Mulla Kabir as the person who conducted talks with the Afghan government.
Taliban sources said Mulla Kabir was unaware about media reports concerning his visit to Kabul and he reacted with amazement when told about it recently. The sources said Mulla Kabir was fiercely loyal to Mulla Omar and he would never betray him or do something on his own.
Mulla Kabir has now given an interview to the Taliban website, Shahamat, to deny the media reports about his visit and talks in Kabul with the Afghan government. He pointed out that the government in Kabul and the foreigners supporting it had failed to present even a small proof to substantiate their claims about the peace talks with the Taliban. He argued that the US and its allies had failed to defeat the Taliban in the battlefield and were now spreading propaganda and trying to score gains in the political arena.
