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| Afghanistan |
| Top ex-Taleban minister ’freed’ |
| 2003-10-08 |
| Former Taleban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil has arrived in the south-western Afghan town of Kandahar, after his release from the US military base in Bagram, reports say. A Pakistan-based aide to Mr Mutawakil said on condition of anonymity that the former minister was now staying with his relatives in the town after being freed about four days ago. Mr Mutawakil spent some 18 months in US custody, following his surrender shortly after American troops ousted the Taleban regime in late 2001. The charges against him were never specified. Mr Mutawakil has always been described as the more respectable face of the Taleban. Just before the US sent troops to Afghanistan, he reportedly had a major disagreement with Mullah Mohammad Omar, founder of the Taleban movement, on sheltering Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan. It was reported that Mr Mutawakil led a group of moderate Taleban who wanted Bin Laden to leave Afghanistan to avoid US reprisals against the Taleban regime. The idea of moderate Taliban isn’t as stupid as it sounds, after the core Taliban began to take control of the country, various warlords, druglords, tribal leaders, ex-communists and member of other political factions joined up them, most of whom had very little loyalty to the Taliban’s ideology. As soon as America went to war, those factions all dumped them, which was one reason for the rapid disintergration of the Talibs. News of Mr Mutawakil’s release came as Nato-led peacekeepers in Afghanistan and Afghan police said they had arrested a man suspected of planning terrorist attacks. An spokesman said the man, identified as Abu Bakr, was a senior commander in Kabul for the Hizb-e-Islami faction led by the renegade warlord, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Mr Hekmatyar - a former Afghan prime minister - has been labelled a wanted terrorist by Washington, and there have been reports that his faction may have formed a loose alliance with Taleban and al-Qaeda remnants. |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |
| #3 Afghan President Hamid Karzai is denying reports that the United States has freed former Taliban foreign minister Mullah Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil from custody in Afghanistan. "This is not true. This is absolutely not true. He has not been released," Mr Karzai said. Turning to the US special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, Mr Karzai asked: "Is this true?" Mr Khalilzad, who did not speak, shook his head. Humm, somebody talking out of turn? |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-10-8 10:55:28 AM |
| #2 Another of Hek's "senior commanders" jugged or dead. He'll have to do his own dirty work soon |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-10-8 9:41:47 AM |
| #1 And there were also some Taliban who were nationalistic, who unlike Omar didn't enter in ecstasy just because some rascal spoke to them in classic Arabic and who were not eager in having Afghans take orders from others and specially of people who tend to lose their wars in Six days or of people who like Bin Laden who spent the war hiding in Pakistan. |
| Posted by: JFM 2003-10-8 1:41:46 AM |