Taliban leader Mullah Baradar said - there was no intention to kill Ashraf Ghani

Posted on 4th Jan 2022 by rohit kumar

Afghan Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar has said the Taliban had no intention of killing former President Ashraf Ghani.

 

Mullah Baradar has said this in an interview with the government TV channel of Afghanistan.

 

It is noteworthy that Ashraf Ghani and his close associates have been saying that the Taliban wanted to kill him after the capture of Kabul.

 

Ashraf Ghani, in an interview given to the BBC in the past, justified his decision to leave the country in August last year, saying that then his security chief had said that if the president took a stand then "everyone's death is certain". "

 

Even after the Taliban captured Kabul last year, Ashraf Ghani's brother Hashmat Ghani claimed in an interview that his brother's "murder conspiracy was being hatched to create chaos and bloodshed in Kabul and some retire". And the old tribal chieftains can bake their bread'.

 

However, Hashmat Ghani did not tell in this interview who is creating this conspiracy. Hashmat Ali is also a politician and accepted his government without supporting the Taliban then.

 

What did Mulla Abdul Ghani Baradar say?

The journalist interviewing for Afghanistan's state-run TV channel RTA World asked Mullah Baradar, "Former President Ashraf Ghani said a lot in a recent interview and said that if he did not leave the country, he would have been killed. There was a conspiracy to kill him, did the Islamic Emirates have any such plans?"

 

In response to this, Mulla Baradar asks- "Whoever is a criminal, they are the same. You must have seen that many people stayed here, they are meeting people, they are meeting foreign people, did they have any problem?"

 

The presenter asked again - "So what was said was wrong?"

 

Baradar says, "Absolutely, there's no truth to it."

 

Mullah Baradar was referring to former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and former chief executive Abdullah Abdullah. Both these leaders are living there even after the Taliban's capture of Kabul.

 

But ousted President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, seven of his closest advisers, and most of his ministers fled the country during Taliban control of Kabul.

 

'Committed to forgiveness'

Mullah Baradar also said in his interview that the supreme leader of the Taliban, Mullah Hebtullah Akhundzada, had announced a pardon for all people and this also applies to Ashraf Ghani.

 

Mullah Baradar said, "Allah gave us success in Afghanistan, it was a result of his help. That's why our emir announced a pardon for all those who were associated with the old administration. Then we went to Ashraf Ghani or someone else." How else could you kill?

 

"We are committed to clemency and we have no intention of killing anyone."

 

The interview with Mulla Baradar also sought feedback on reports of former Afghan military officers and policemen being killed and tortured.

 

Mullah Baradar in his reply said, "There have been no such atrocities against the soldiers of the previous government openly. If it was done covertly, then those who did this have been arrested. Our forces are not even allowed to beat anyone. "

 

Human Rights Watch, the international human rights organization, claimed in a report last month that more than 100 former security personnel have been brutally murdered during the Taliban regime.

 

Human Rights Watch also collected data on 47 former security forces who either surrendered to the Taliban or were captured by the Taliban between August 15 and October 31. He was later murdered.

 

After this report, 22 countries, including the US, in a joint statement asked the Taliban not to target former Afghan security forces.

 

Earlier, another human rights organization Amnesty International had also accused the Taliban of committing unbridled killings in its report.

 

After the Taliban took control of Kabul on August 15 last year, Amnesty said in a report that on August 30, some 300 Taliban fighters arrived near the village of Dahani Kul where families of several former soldiers were living.

 

It was said in this report that nine soldiers who surrendered to the Taliban were gunned down. Two other soldiers were killed in the crossfire and two civilians were also killed in the clashes that followed the incident. A 17-year-old girl was also among those killed.

 

Who is Mulla Baradar

 

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is one of the four Taliban leaders who founded the Taliban in Afghanistan in 1994.

 

In 2001, the Taliban's power collapsed in the US-led military action on Afghanistan. Mullah Baradar then became the organization's most important leader for the Taliban's extremist activities.

In 2010, he was captured in an American-Pakistani joint operation in Karachi, Pakistan. It was told that at that time he was the second leader in the Taliban after Mullah Omar.

 

His name was heard again in 2012 when news came that Mullah Baradar's name was at the top of the leaders whose release was conditioned by the Taliban for peace talks. He was finally released on 21 September 2013.

 

Since then Mullah Umar was leading a life of exile. After this, his name again came in the headlines when the talk of the peace process with America progressed.

 

Last year, he was made deputy prime minister in the interim government formed after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. Apart from him, Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi was also made Deputy Prime Minister.

 

Mullah Baradar was the first leader of this organization to have a telephonic conversation with the then US President Donald Trump in 2020.

 

Earlier, he had signed the Doha Agreement on the withdrawal of American troops from the Taliban.

 

In the interim government announced on 7 September last year, Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, one of the founders of the Taliban, was made the head of the government, the prime minister.