Govt insists Taliban carried out recent deadly raids

KABUL of being behind recent deadly attacks on a hospital in Kabul and on a funeral in eastern Nangarhar province.

But the Taliban have denied their involvement in the attacks and US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Process Zalmay Khalilzad acknowledged the Taliban’s denial and blamed Daesh for the brutal attacks.

“The Taliban’s denial to take credit for recent deadly attacks was due to the pressure from people and concerns raised by the national and international institutions and human rights organizations, indicating the Taliban’s weakness, cowardice and concealment of the ongoing atrocities against the Afghan people,” read a joint statement from security institutions on Saturday.

It said the Taliban had claimed credit for the attack in Gradez City, the capital of Paktia province because according to them they targeted a military installation while the group denied responsibility for the attack on a hospital in Kabul fearing its dimensions of condemnation.

“The Taliban believe the attack on hospital is a war crime so it’s a strong argument that the Taliban have committed a war crime.”

“The attacks which earlier the Taliban termed as war crime are being condemned by the Taliban themselves.”

The Taliban have strongly condemned the attacks on hospital and funeral and termed them brutal, cowardly and inhuman. The group rejected their involvement in the attacks.

On Friday, US special envoy ZalmayKhalilzad tweeted the hospital was stormed by the Islamic State militant group through its Khorasan province branch.

He wrote: “The US has assessed ISIS-K conducted the horrific attacks on a maternity ward and a funeral earlier this week in Afghanistan.”

Khalilzad added the ISIS, posing a threat to the Afghan people and to the world at large, had shown a pattern for carrying out these types of heinous attacks against civilians.

Hours later, Kabul openly rejected the US assessment that Islamic State militants were behind the attack that drew widespread denunciation.

The joint statement also reiterated that: “The Taliban cannot hide their crimes and intimidation by committing countless crimes in the past and present, using the "attack and denial" tactic, condemning it and blaming other terrorist groups such as ISIS.”

The statement added, the Taliban have a long history of killing non-military personnel and civilians and have carried out attacks on hospitals, mosques, schools, educational and training centers, hotels, gymnasiums and other civilian targets.

Security forces have the record of tens of deadly and suicide Taliban attacks such as the one on Jamhoriat Hospital in 2018, car-bombing in 16^th Municipality district in 2018, another car-bombing in Shah Shaheed, rocket attack on a mosque in Haska Mena in Nangarhar province in 2019, group attack on Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul in 2018 and other several attacks in which a large number of civilians had been killed.

“The Taliban have not even pledged to abide by the terms of the peace agreement with the US, continued to establish contact with other terrorist groups in Afghanistan, denied to negotiations with the government and reach political settlement of disputes but on the contrary the group launched spring attacks on the Afghan people without prior notice, which is another ploy to deceive the Afghan people and the parties involved in the peace process.”

Nh/ma