https://sputnikglobe.com/20210913/taliban-rejects-speculations-its-deputy-pm-mullah-baradar-died-releases-video-1089024634.html

Taliban Rejects Speculations Its Deputy PM Mullah Baradar Died, Releases Video

Taliban Rejects Speculations Its Deputy PM Mullah Baradar Died, Releases Video

Sputnik International

The Taliban* last week slammed the US after the Pentagon said that members of the terrorist outfit Haqqani Network, including Afghanistan’s new interior... 13.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-13T09:08+0000

2021-09-13T09:08+0000

2022-12-08T18:02+0000

afghanistan

mullah abdul ghani baradar

si weijiang

afghanistan

haqqani

pakistan

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The Taliban on Monday released a video that the Islamist group claimed was of its co-founder and deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, as it rejected speculations that he had been killed recently.One of the Taliban’s officials claimed that the video was taken in Kandahar.The Taliban's spokesperson also took to Twitter to reject "baseless speculation" about Baradar's death.The video was released a day after Afghan media reported that Baradar was alive, as it cited a statement signed by Baradar and released to a Kabul-based media organisation.Meanwhile, a Taliban official has also claimed that Baradar is alive.The Taliban official, however, refused to confirm if the signature at the end of the letter was indeed that of Baradar. He also said that the letter was written by Baradar's aide.The claims of Baradar’s death have been fuelled in the wake of the visit of Lieutenant-General Faiz Hameed, the chief of Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), to Kabul on 4 September.According to a report in Panjshir Observer, Baradar sustained wounds during a violent confrontation with members of the Haqqani Network in Kabul on 3 September.Members of the Haqqani Network, designated as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) by the US, have been nominated for key roles in the new cabinet unveiled last week. The newly-appointed interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, who heads the Haqqani Network, has a $10 million bounty on his head.In a leaked audio that surfaced over the weekend, a voice believed to be that of Taliban’s new deputy defence minister Mullah Fazel is heard complaining that a ‘Punjabi’ kept the Taliban from forming an “inclusive government”, as per Indian website CNN-News18.The ‘Punjabi’ reference is believed to be an allusion to the Pakistani spy chief who was in Kabul earlier.In the clipping, Fazel also laments the fact that Hameed lobbied for members of the Haqqani Network to be included in the new cabinet, announced after the Pakistani spy chief concluded his Afghanistan visit.Before Hameed’s Kabul trip, Baradar was widely tipped to be the next Prime Minister of the Taliban cabinet, as per Taliban officials cited by western media organisations such as New York Times and Reuters.Mullah Hasan Akhund, a lesser-known leader, has been named as Afghanistan’s new Prime Minister in the cabinet announced by the Taliban.Baradar has been identified as a “moderate” within the Taliban leadership and led the group’s negotiations with the US during the ‘Doha Deal’ of February 2020. The Haqqani Network, on the other hand, were said to be against negotiating with the US, as per a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) report released in June this year.*The Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Daesh (ISIS/ISIL/IS) are terrorist groups banned in Russia and many other countries.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20210904/pakistans-spy-chief-visits-kabul-amid-claims-of-factionalism-in-taliban-over-formation-of-new-govt-1083795587.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20210829/pentagon-admits-co-mingling-of-taliban-haqqani-backtracks-on-separate-entities-valuation-1083744270.html

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pakistan

2021

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mullah abdul ghani baradar, si weijiang, afghanistan, haqqani, pakistan