ATLANTIA (Pajhwok): Hezb-i-Islami leader Gulbadin Hekmatyar, referring to the killing of Al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri in Kabul, says the US still has a military presence in Afghanistan and has not ended the war yet.
US President Joe Biden announced last week that Zawahiri had been killed in an American drone strike in Afghanistan’s capital.
The caretaker Afghan government, without saying anything about the killing of Zawahiri, confirmed the drone attack in Sherpur neighbourhood, slamming it as a violation of Afghanistan’s sovereignty, international principles and the Doha agreement.
Later, the Islamic Emirate issued a statement, saying they had no information about the entry and presence of Zawahiri in Kabul.
In his Friday sermon at a Kabul mosque, the HIA leader claimed the Biden administration did not have any proof of killing Zawahiri.
“Sunday’s attack was not only an attempt to kill Zawahiri; it was also an assault on the entire Afghan nation, its independence and sovereignty. All Afghans condemn it. It was a terrorist attack that cannot be justified in any way.”
Hekmatyar believed the 9/11 tragedy had happened due to such attacks. He said the latest strike had laid bare many facts, as the US still had an active military presence in Afghanistan and had not yet ended its war.
He called the Doha Agreement a betrayal of the nation as it was not a peace accord and the US had no respect for the pact.
Hekmatyar said: “The question is how Zawahiri found his way to Kabul, on what assurances? This serious question should be given a clear and acceptable answer to make the whole nation understand. Doubts and suspicions would disappear.”
According to him, a major and important task for the Islamic Emirate is to satisfy the nation as to how this incident happened because ambiguity and silence were neither useful nor correct.
Hekmatyar insisted the killing of Zawahiri would neither destroy Al-Qaeda nor enable America to achieve its objective. The US had been unable to realise its goals by killing Osama bin Laden, he concluded.
sa/mud
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