Washington: Taliban leader Mullah Omar is hiding in Pakistan along with his commanders, a top US military official General John Allen wrote in an article in The Washington Post.
The statement contradicts Pakistan’s stand that Omar lives in Afghanistan.
“Omar lives in Pakistan, as do many of his commanders. From that safe vantage point, they’ve sent hundreds of young, impressionable, largely spiritual and helpless youths to their deaths and detention in Afghanistan. For this, they must forfeit their honour and any claim to Islamic virtue,” Allen, Commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, wrote.
Allen’s article focused on the recent increase in attack on US troops from the Afghan security force, which the Taliban has been claiming it has infiltrated and carrying out such attacks.
“The focus on ‘green-on-blue’ attacks obscures the callous slaughter of Afghan civilians by insurgents led by Mohammad Omar. He has the blood of innocents on his hands even though he hypocritically tells his subordinates not to attack civilians.
“Perhaps that should be no surprise. ‘Green’ and ‘blue’ have been taking the fight to the red enemy, the Taliban, and the enemy is fighting back from a position of weakness.
“His forces have largely been ejected from most of the relevant population areas, and from among the most relevant terrain in Afghanistan. Omar is losing financial support from donors, who are sending their money elsewhere, and from reduced drug profits, thanks to Afghan and coalition efforts to stamp out the poppy harvest.”
Allen also appreciated Afghan security forces for their efforts in curbing Taliban’s influence.
“Finally, Afghan security forces are increasing in number and quality every day. The area controlled by allied and Afghan forces reaches into Taliban support zones that had long been inaccessible,” he wrote.
Holding that Islam never permits acts like “murdering innocent civilians” and the “scourge of drugs and abject criminality”, the official said with every act of violence and atrocity on innocent Afghans, the insurgents were only distancing themselves further from Afghan people.
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