Kabul: Taliban strikes deals with foreign terrorist groups

Tajik resistance in Panjshir reveals alleged been meetings with al-Qaeda, Tajik, Uzbek and Uyghur formations. The fears of neighbouring Tajikistan. The Taliban had pledged not to host terrorist centres before the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The National Opposition Front (Fon) of Afghanistan, the Panjshir resistance group founded by Ahmad Massoud, has reported that according to its sources there was a secret meeting in Kabul between the Taliban leadership and 16 leaders of foreign terrorist groups. The Taliban would then accompany their guests to the northern provinces of Baghlan, Kunduz and Badakšan. The Taliban government did not comment on this circumstance.

According to the Fon website, the leaders involved are Hadji Forgan, head of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, Mawlavi Ibrohim, leader of the group 'Jamaat Ansarullah' (composed of militants from Tajikistan), Shayk Zakir, head of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Abdullah Uygur, representative of al-Qaeda in northern Afghanistan, and others, who had already arrived in Kabul at the end of August as guests of Hadji Afzal, a leading exponent of the 'Haqqani network' in the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul.

The terrorist leaders reportedly met with the Interior Minister of the Taliban government, Sirajuddin Haqqani, to discuss plans for the formation of a network of fighters in the north of the country. According to the agreement reached, about half of the members of the terrorist organisations could be sent to various countries in Central Asia in the next six months. The Haqqani network would have entrusted the coordination of this new formation to Mawlavi Ibrohim, who was recently seen near Kunduz together with some al Qaeda representatives.

The other leaders would be recognised in Baghlan, where a Taliban headquarters is located in the north, while Zakir would head to Badakšan province with some Taliban leaders. These manoeuvres have already provoked yet another reaction from the government of Tajikistan, which has repeatedly denounced the threat to Central Asia from Afghanistan.

Dushanbe's Foreign Minister, Sirojiddin Mukhriddin, spoke at the UN Assembly on 24 September, expressing his concern about the situation, as 'Afghanistan is trying in every way to become a haven for terrorists and a base for the spread of Islamic extremism throughout the region'.

According to the Tajiks, the movement of terrorist groups to the north of Afghanistan emphasises this plan, involving outsiders from other Central Asian countries to create border tensions, and as Mukhriddin reminded us: 'The consequences for Tajikistan will be enormous, as it has 1,400 kilometres of border with Afghanistan'.

Only on 26 September, a representative of the Taliban, Zabihullah Modjahid, assured Radio Ozodi correspondents that 'the Taliban deny the possibility, Allah forbid, of turning our country into a concentration of terrorists ready to attack neighbouring states, we will give guarantees for everyone's security, and Tajikistan's fears are groundless'.

The Taliban invite the Tajiks to officially discuss these problems, but from Dushanbe they insist on the unrepresentativeness of the government in Kabul, which despite numerous appeals has not wanted to integrate the country's many ethnic, political and geographical expressions, of which the Tajik component is one of the most significant.

The Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, Prince Faysal bin Farhan Al Saud, also called on the Taliban not to allow Afghanistan to become an international centre of terrorism and 'for this it is necessary to develop close cooperation at the international level'.

Speaking at the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, some concern was also expressed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif. Fears had also increased after the elimination of al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri by the US, identifying his secret base in Kabul, where a Biden drone killed him.