Multiple reports coming out of Afghanistan indicate that infighting within the Taliban has exploded. Senior Haqqani Network leader Anas Haqqani has been severely wounded, and Mullah Baradar has been killed according to these reports. This comes a week after the Baradar and Haqqani factions engaged in a power struggle leading to Baradar’s demotion from Prime Minister to Deputy Prime Minister of the new Taliban government.
AND Magazine sources cannot confirm that Anas Haqqani had been shot but do report that Mullah Baradar has died. The Taliban responded to the reports of Baradar’s death by releasing an audio recording and a signed document both allegedly produced by Baradar. No video or photographic evidence has been released so far to prove that Baradar is still alive.
There are also reports that Pakistani ISI chief Lieutenant-General Faiz Hameed rushed to Kabul on Saturday to attempt to bring an end to what is beginning to show indications of becoming a civil war in Taliban ranks.
“Don’t worry, everything will be okay,” Hameed was quoted as saying in a video clip of his arrival in Kabul. Asked if he would be meeting the Taliban leadership, the ISI chief paused to look at Pakistan’s ambassador to Kabul, Mansour Ahmad Khan, before responding, “I have just landed. We are working for peace and stability in Afghanistan.”
There are suggestions from the Northern Alliance that Baradar and Anas Haqqani were both shot during a confrontation in Kabul that resulted from a disagreement over how to handle the ongoing resistance in the Panjshir Valley. According to this reporting, Baradar wanted Taliban fighters withdrawn from the area and the Haqqanis wanted to pursue a much harder line there.
Meanwhile, video is now emerging of Taliban fighters going door to door in parts of Kabul populated by Panjshir people, rounding them up and taking them away to unknown locations.
Other video coming out of Afghanistan shows individuals being herded into containers and killed as part of an ongoing effort by the Taliban to “cleanse” the Panjshir of resistance.
From Washington, of course, there is nothing but deafening silence. The American people are being fed the lie that the Taliban have changed and are no longer terrorists or dedicated to our destruction. Within the confines of the Biden White House where reality dares not intrude that story may be accepted. That does not make it true.
The Taliban are thugs, like some sort of medieval mixture of the Mafia and holy warriors. They stand for violence, intolerance, and oppression. They have hardly seized power and are still in the process of slaughtering their political opponents and already they are turning on each other, jockeying for position and eating their own.
Churchill once spoke of an “iron curtain” descending across Eastern Europe. We are watching as a curtain of ignorance and darkness descends across Afghanistan. Pray for the Afghan people.
