New Afghan Leader Asks Ex-officials To Return

Afghanistan’s new acting Prime Minister, Mohammad Hasan Akhund has asked the former officials who fled when the Taliban took power in August to return to the country.

Gatekeepers News reports that Akhund on Wednesday assured the former officials that the Taliban “will guarantee their security and safety.”

The new Afgan leader, in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera, said the caretaker government would guarantee the security of diplomats, embassies and humanitarian relief institutions.

According to him, the group wants to establish positive and healthy relations with countries in the region and beyond.

Akhund said the movement’s leaders faced “a great responsibility and test” towards the Afghan people.

“We have suffered huge losses in money and lives for this historical moment in the history of Afghanistan,” he added.

“The stage of bloodshed, killing and contempt for people in Afghanistan has ended, and we have paid dearly for this.”

Akhund further restated the Taliban’s promise of amnesty for anyone who has worked alongside the United States and the administration it backed following its 2001 invasion.

“No one will be able to prove that he was subjected to revenge. And in such tense circumstances, it is easy to do what you want. But the movement is disciplined and controls its gunmen. And, we have not harmed anyone because of his previous actions,” he said.

“Therefore, I assure the Islamic nation, especially the Afghan people, that we want all the good, the causes for success and welfare, and we seek to establish an Islamic system,” he added, asking “everyone to participate with us in this blessed project”.

Gatekeepers News  reports that Akhund’s statement comes a day after the Taliban announced its interim government. The 33 officials announced include; 14 former Taliban officials during its previous 1996-2001 rule, 5 former Guantanamo detainees, and the remaining 12 are officials from the second generation of the movement.

Akhund was a close associate and political adviser to the late Mullah Omar, the founder of the Taliban and its first supreme leader.