Are the Taliban starting to kill each other?

The war between the Taliban seems to have exploded and this was not only reflected in the formation of the provisional government in Kabul, where the Haqqani group, al-Qaeda ally, opium and wanted by the United States for terrorism, took a prominent place.

Two Afghan personalities have disappeared in Kabul and the Afghans are wondering if the supreme leader and hermit of the Taliban, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, who has not been seen since the formation of the government, and the deputy prime minister who aspired to become head of government, mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar they are still alive.

El mullah Baradar was not present at the meeting Taliban with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani last Sunday. The last time he was seen in public was on August 15, when he announced the formation of the new government.

On Monday, the Taliban were forced to deny that he was dead, after rumors that he was murdered, in a power bid on Friday at the presidential palace with the powerful and brutal Haqqani clan. In the battle, Anna Haqqani was reportedly injured in the dispute.

In Qatar, the three members of the Haqqani family were at the top of the delegates along with other members of the new Afghan government. Sirajuddin Haqqani is new Home Secretary, though FBI pays 5 million dollars for his head and he’s on the UN terrorist list.

But he also has ties to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, who killed three policemen in Queta last week, along with a suicidal man.

Clan

The Haqqani clan forged ties with Pakistan, which, along with Mullah Baradar’s alliance with China in the region, was outside the influence of the power they sought and had historically. The Haqqani and ISIS, the Pakistani secret service, they have worked together for decades since the Soviet invasion.

Khalil Haqqani is the refugee minister of the new administration. Anna Haqani, her other brother and poet, had a high level role as a negotiator in the evacuation with the United States and was also present at Sunday’s meeting with Qatari diplomats.

Rumors about Baradar’s security They date back to last week, when the Taliban announced the government. He, who was to be the top boss, was relegated to the post of deputy prime minister while the Haqqani clan soared through the hierarchy to become interior minister.

The Afghan government insists that Baradar is in kandahar with Supreme Leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada discussing the future of government. But Baradar and the Haqqani have historical differences, dating back to relations with Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, when he was deputy defense minister in the Afghan Taliban government.

The supreme leader of the Taliban, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, has not been seen in public, a month after the militants took control of Afghanistan. A spokesperson said he is denying rumors of his death.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, one of the most recognized faces of the Taliban and brother-in-law of Mullah Omar, founder of the Taliban and who hid him at the start of the American bombings in 2001, is also missing.

He is number 2 in the Taliban and who commissioned negotiations for the Doha peace agreement with the United States government, after being released from ISIS’s prisons in Karachi, Pakistan.

Questions about the well-being of the head of the political bureau and key figure in the peace talks have started to arise after he had not been seen in public for several days.

According to sources in Kabul, there were rumors in Kabul that he was killed or seriously injured in a fight with another senior Taliban official, during a discussion on how to divide Afghan ministries, according to sources in Kabul.

Pakistan or Muslim Brotherhood?

The Taliban not a uniform group nor disciplined, but at least it is divided into four groups, which pit themselves against conservative commanders, linked to heroin and drugs, the Pakistani IS or the “new Taliban”, more inclined to the Muslim Brotherhood.

But also because of its level of medievality, of connection with women and the purdha, education for them or a wave of modernity, after 20 years of war, with social networks between the two.

Baladar, detained by the Pakistani secret service because he had started peace talks with the pro-Western Afghan government of Karzai from Queta without Pakistan’s knowledge, he was only released under pressure from the president Donald Trump, to lead the peace negotiations for the Taliban. .

The Pakistanis had wanted to negotiate and exchange it with Nawab Bugti, the Balouche independence leader, a refugee in Afghanistan and protected from Karzai. The Afghan government refused. Baladar remained in prison until the Dopha talks and Bugti fled to Switzerland to save his life with his family.

Afghanistan scholars believe Taliban group has drawn closer to Muslim Brotherhood o Muslim Brotherhood, the Sunni group now led by Recep Erdogan, the Turkish president, and the royal family of Qatar, in open rebellion against Saudi Arabia and the current Egyptian dictatorship, Erdogan seeks to take control of the commercial airport in Kabul, with the help of Qatar.

They do not appear

Official efforts on Monday to dispel the rumors appeared to deepen the mystery. The Taliban released photos of a written note at the hands of one of Baradar’s agents saying he was in Kandahar.

They then shared an audio message, which was supposedly from Baradar, contrasted with old photos. The lack of video has raised more questions among Afghans as the Taliban are no longer a hidden insurgent group and Baradar’s face is well known due to his international role.

“I was traveling. Taking advantage of my absence, the media activists started propaganda, Me and all my colleagues are fine. The news produces propaganda. Deny these rumors. We’re all fine, ”Baradar reportedly said in an audio, which is heard with interference.

Spokesman Suhail Shaheen explained the rumors in English when he denied them on Twitter.

Mullah Bradar, Deputy Prime Minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, dismissed in a voicemail all allegations that he was injured or killed in a clash. He says these are lies and totally unfounded “he wrote, using a different spelling of the chief’s name.

The videos and a photo also shared online, believed to show Baradar in Kandahar, showed nothing to confirm when they were taken. They weren’t dated.

They hid death

It is the group’s background regarding the deaths of its personalities or its internal conflicts with the Taliban that fuel the theories. The death of founding leader Mullah Mohammad Omar from tuberculosis hid for six years. Meanwhile, the Taliban continued to make statements on their behalf.

Baradar was already considered I had lost in internal Taliban disputes over the formation of the new government, according to the Afghanistan Analysts Network.

Of the three men who were number 2 to the group’s supreme leader before the fall of Kabul, Baradar He was the only one who didn’t get an important ministry. Military leader Yaqub Omar, the son of the group’s founding leader, was given the defense ministry and Sirajuddin Haqqani was awarded the interior ministry.

The Afghanistan Analyst Network also noted that Akhundzada’s absence from all public and private events, nearly a month after the fall of Kabul, that suggested he was no longer alive.

Analysts noted that even reclusive Mullah Omar made a few public appearances, but not on video, when he ruled the country. These included meeting with foreign officials and making statements and radio interviews.

“So it would be strange if Haibatullah, now that the movement is in power, is alive and still so isolated. At the moment, he seems to function as a symbolic figure, which can unify without appearing or speaking. “

The Haqqani live in the tribal area, in Waziristan in particular, they have the fiercest and most conservative militias of the tribes, who kidnapped Westerners and journalists for years during the “war on terror”.

PB