KUALA LUMPUR – The Taliban’s central command in Afghanistan has been unable to confirm news that two Malaysians were among members of the militant Islamic State (IS) captured by Taliban forces following a firefight in Kabul.
Although reports have stated the possibility of two Malaysians being detained, a Taliban spokesman said this has not been ascertained.
Responding to The Vibes, Abdul Qahar Balkhi said that inquiries have been made to the organisation’s enforcement authorities regarding the matter.
“We have sent an inquiry to the authorities and have not heard anything confirming such a story,” said Qahar, also a member of the Taliban’s Cultural Commission, which appeared at the Taliban’s first press conference on August 24, following the Islamist organisation’s takeover of Kabul.
However, Andrin Raj, director of the Nordic Counter-Terrorism Network, believes otherwise.
He said that the two operatives may have worked with a well-known Malaysian humanitarian organisation prior to joining IS.
Further, he told The Vibes investigations are under way to determine the claims made by the media.
On Saturday, British newspaper The Times reported that the Taliban had detained six fighters operating for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria –Khorasan (Isis-K) after a gun battle in west Kabul on August 26.
This incident had occurred sometime after the massive suicide bombing at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, which killed nearly 200 people and left scores injured that same day.
Isis-K is understood to be an offshoot of IS, which operates in South and Central Asia as the hardcore militant network’s affiliate.
Quoting Taliban criminal investigation department chief Saifullah Mohammed, The Times reported that four of the operatives were Afghans while the other two were Malaysian.
The Malaysian police have since submitted applications to foreign security agencies to investigate claims regarding the two Malaysians.
Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani has said that the Malaysian authorities have had no information regarding the involvement of any Malaysians in the militant group in Afghanistan.
On August 15, the media had reported that Taliban fighters had not only secured nearly all of Afghanistan but also surrounded the capital of Kabul.
American forces merely maintained a presence at the airport, helping Afghan and Western evacuees flee the country.
By the middle of this month, Taliban fighters had secured nearly all of Afghanistan and begun entering the capital Kabul.
This followed US president Joe Biden’s decision in April to pull US troops out from Afghanistan – where they had been present for the last two decades – by September.
It is understood that there have been clashes between the Taliban and Islamic State fighters as the Americans departed and the Afghan government’s own soldiers fled, leaving a power vacuum.
There has been a huge international outcry over the US’ behaviour in leaving the country in the lurch.
Afghanistan has seen escalating and widespread panic over prospects of the Taliban bringing back the hard-line Islamist laws it had enforced before it was removed from government during the invasion of the country by the US and its allies in late 2001.
Last night, The Vibes had quoted Qahar as claiming that reports and concerns about the Taliban’s human rights track record are merely propaganda. He said Malaysians should not harbour reservations towards the newly formed Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
“We would like to assure all people of Malaysia and the world that they should not have any reservations about the Islamic Emirate (of Afghanistan),” he said.
“There has been vitriolic propaganda against us for far too long, which has given an impression that we are involved in human rights violations, all of which are nothing more than fabrications,” he had said. – The Vibes, August 30, 2021
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