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AT Monitoring Desk-KABUL: Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf, leader of Dawat-e-Islami party and former Jihadi leader on Friday said criticized the Taliban and said the rebel group’s activities and their leadership and management system is against Islam and Shari’a.
He said the insurgent group is a puppet to foreigners. He however called on them to end the war.
Talking to newsmen at his home, Sayyaf said the Taliban’s late leader Mullah Omar was brutally tortured and then killed two years ago in Pakistan and that’s why no one was prepared to confirm his death.
“Mullah Omar was killed two years ago in Pakistan. He was brutally killed. No one could hide a natural death for two years,” said Sayyaf.
The outspoken former Jihadi leader went on to say that the Taliban have been established initially as a movement to suppress the Mujahideen in the mid-1990s and to destabilize Afghanistan.
“The selection of Mullah Omar [in 1994] was against Sharia [law] and Islam, and they [Taliban] were created to destroy Afghanistan which was a conspiracy against the people of Afghanistan,” Sayyaf told reporters.
“Those who are in the service of foreigners and working [against the interests of the country] for others their fate will be the same as Mullah Omar’s,” Sayyaf said.
About Mullar Omar’s replacement, Sayyaf said: “Those religious scholars who participated in the ceremony [in Pakistan] were not given the right to choose, if the religious scholars were given the right to choose, they might have chosen the most educated and the most knowledgeable figure, rather than the most ignorant and mute one.”
He continued to say that the Taliban receive orders from outside Afghanistan.
“If Mullah Omar was killed or died two years ago there must be two questions – either Mullah Akhtar knew about his death and if so Mullah Akhtar [Mansour] was also involved in his death and if he did not know about his death, then who was the Taliban getting their orders and who was commanding them on the battle ground? Sayyaf asked.
“It is clear as daylight that the orders were coming from outside the country, from foreigners,” Sayyaf said.
Sayyaf however called on the Taliban to shun violence in Afghanistan and change their direction, which, according to him, was the wrong path.
“It is not too late. You can turn away from the wrong path – which was wrong from the beginning. Come and sit with your nation and talk together and solve the issues and if you want, establish a political opposition party where you can criticize the government,” Sayyaf said.
He did however criticize the group for holding prayer ceremonies for Mullah Omar.
“My recommendation to those who loved Mullah Omar is that they should go and stand besides Mullah Omar. Those who expressed condolences to Mullah Omar have not done well. They expressed condolences for the one who killed thousands of people,” he said.
On a more positive note however, Sayyaf praised the Afghan security forces for the sacrifices they have made in the line of duty to bring peace and stability to the war-hit country.
“I pray for our security forces and praise them that they boldly stand against conspiracies with all their shortcomings and defend their country and their people,” he said.
But he went on to lodge criticism against the National Unity Government (NUG) and asked them to end their disputes and start bringing reforms.
“Enough is enough. Till when will they be busy dividing up seats? Go after reforms, work on security and corruption. Go and build the nation,” Sayyaf said.
Hinting at the peace talks, he said there should be two conditions for the holding of such negotiations.
“I believe that there should be two conditions for the peace talks: First we should talk with a delegation that must represent all groups involved in the war – not just one a particular party. The current process is incomplete as Daesh is leading war in our villages. And second, the peace talks should result in putting an end to war in Afghanistan,” the former Jihadi leader said.
He went on to say that he has personally informed President Ashraf Ghani that numerous Afghan officials hold Pakistani identity cards.
He said that in his recent meetings with former president Hamid Karzai, they discussed matters of national interest but that neither is in favor of the collapse of the National Unity Government.
“Karzai was never after the collapse of the system. We never wanted government to collapse, but yes we are concerned about the government and the government should strengthen itself,” he said.
In conclusion, Sayyaf called on media to help in fighting the endemic corruption.
