News - World: The Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has condemned the US atrocities against the Afghan people over the past 20 years, and going on, urging Washington to compensate for its acts of brutality.

“There is no point in all this. It is not the first time America has brutally killed the Afghan people. America has been doing this for the last 20 years. This is American bigotry, and the true face of America has been exposed in front of our people and the world,” Mujahid said in an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN).  He emphasized that America should compensate its atrocities against the Afghans wherever it has committed them.

On October 14, the United States’ military offered to pay unspecified bribes to the relatives of 10 Afghan nationals who were killed in a botched US drone attack in Afghanistan last month.

The drone attack in Kabul on a car in mid-September killed seven children and three adults, including the driver, as American forces were completing their withdrawal from the country.

Moscow meeting on Afghanistan aims to show Taliban’s pursuit for international recognition

Pointing to Russia’s hosting of a third conference involving Afghanistan’s neighbors and the new interim rulers on Wednesday, the Taliban spokesman said Moscow organized the meeting with the purpose of showing the “Taliban’s pursuit for international recognition.” He added that Russia seeks to establish peace in Afghanistan but its reservations should be cleared. “We participated in this conference, so that the world would accept us, and our important issues could be discussed with the world.”

Representatives from Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan as well as a high-level delegation representing the Taliban attended the third meeting of the Moscow Format Consultations on Afghanistan in the Russian capital.

A concluding joint statement said, “The core burden of post-conflict economic and financial reconstruction and development of Afghanistan must be shouldered by troop-based actors which were in the country for the past 20 years.”

The 2001 invasion of Afghanistan by the United States and its allies temporarily ousted the Taliban. The group, however, rallied and began staging a presence on the biggest part of the country’s soil.

Earlier this year, the Taliban initiated an exceptionally forceful offensive to renew their rule. The US only helped matters by announcing a complete withdrawal from Afghanistan in April.

Rumors of Taliban leader’s death rejected

Mujahid also rejected reports about the death of the Taliban’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada two years ago. “He’s alive and absolutely well, he’s in Kandahar, he is leading us.” Akhundzada, he said, would appear within the next days and the world would be able to see and hear him. 

Educational institutions restart working

Mujahid also pointed to the resumption of education in Afghanistan, saying, “Educational institutions are open in many provinces from grade one to grade six, while in Mazar, Balkh and Kandahar the education system is formally open till grade 12.” He stressed the importance of implementing the Taliban’s plan for the rest of the provinces given “some problem in those provinces.”

“We are working on a major plan and mechanism for the education of women, and as soon as it’s ready, the education system will formally begin.”

Source: Press TV