By ISLAMABAD: The Taliban condemned on Sunday a “baseless and biased” report from the UN Security Council highlighting rifts within the group’s ranks.
A report, issued in June by the UNSC’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, said Taliban governance structures remain “highly exclusionary, Pashtun-centred and repressive” toward all forms of opposition.
It said Kandahar’s return as the seat of power circumvents Taliban ministers in Kabul because of the way decisions are made. The report also said the group was battling internal conflict over key policies, the centralisation of power and the control of financial and natural resources in Afghanistan. Ongoing power struggles are further destabilising the situation, to the point where an outbreak of armed conflict between rival factions is a manifest risk, the report added.
The Taliban’s main spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected the report’s “accusations” of strife, saying they were baseless and demonstrated “obvious hostility” to Afghans. “The publication of such biased and baseless reports does not help Afghanistan…, rather, it increases worry among the people (Afghans).”
A report, issued in June by the UNSC’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, said Taliban governance structures remain “highly exclusionary, Pashtun-centred and repressive” toward all forms of opposition.
It said Kandahar’s return as the seat of power circumvents Taliban ministers in Kabul because of the way decisions are made. The report also said the group was battling internal conflict over key policies, the centralisation of power and the control of financial and natural resources in Afghanistan. Ongoing power struggles are further destabilising the situation, to the point where an outbreak of armed conflict between rival factions is a manifest risk, the report added.
The Taliban’s main spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected the report’s “accusations” of strife, saying they were baseless and demonstrated “obvious hostility” to Afghans. “The publication of such biased and baseless reports does not help Afghanistan…, rather, it increases worry among the people (Afghans).”
