KANDAHAR CITY (Pajhwok): Prominent clerics, elders and civil society leader’s message to continue the insurgency and asked him to resume peace talks.
A day after Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada and Sirajuddin Haqqani as his deputies.
In his maiden public audio message, Mansoor vehemently opposed the nascent peace talks as enemypropaganda. While calling for unity in Taliban’s ranks, he said: “We will not be waiting for the peace process but will continue our struggle.”
At a gathering at the press club here, religious scholar Maulvi Obaidullah Faizyabicondemned Mansoor’s vowto continue the insurgency and abandon the talks. He accused Pakistan of playing a double game in sponsoring the talks and breaking the news of Omar’s death only two days before the second round.
He believed the war in Afghanistan decree in Afghanistan would be hell, the scholar ruled.
Attaullah Atta, a provincial council member, said Taliban were divided into two main groups — one supportive of talks and the other intent upon fighting. He viewed differences between the groups as a setback to the country and asked the militants to go for talks for the stability sake.
Ahmad Shah Spar, a civil society activist, said: “We should learn from past experiences since Pakistan had nominated Omar as the supreme leader of the faithful. Pakistan then received 51 aircraft from the US, using Omar and later announced his death at a crucial time. Nobody has seen his body.”
President Ashraf Ghani has done all he could to pressurise Pakistan to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table and travelled to Saudi Arabia, China and several other countries to muster their support, Ahmad Shah said, blaming Islamabad’s dubious role.
The Afghans, who expected Mansoor to support dialogue, were disappointed by his announcement. The Taliban chief should not forget the destiny of his predecessors living in Pakistan like Mullah Omar, Mutasem Agha Jan, Mullah Baradar and others, he said.
He asked the government to welcome the peace process besides focussing on training Afghan forces to crush terrorists’ infiltration from neighbouring states. He also urged the new Taliban leader to stop killing innocent Afghans with financial resources and weapons from outsiders.
Eng. Kabir Darwesh, civil society activist, said the numbers of widows, orphans and martyrsalready too high and both sides should go ahead with peace talks. War was in no way in the interest of the Afghans and Mansoor must take back his statement.
shah/mud
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