A veteran Taliban leader claims that a majority of Afghan insurgents want to negotiate a peace deal but says their views have been suppressed by hardliners controlling the movement’s propaganda machine.
In a rare interview, Agha Jan Motasim, who was finance minister in the Taliban regime, said statements issued in recent years in the name of the insurgent leader Mullah Omar have not reflected the fugitive cleric’s true views.
“Unfortunately there are hardliners and extremists in the movement who use his name. If his messages were by video or audio, we would know it was him. But there are warmongers who have taken over his name and are putting out their own message with it,” Motasim told The Guardian. Since he was wounded in an assassination attempt in Karachi two years ago, Motasim has lived in exile in Ankara.
According to Motasim, Omar is alive but has lost control of the Taliban’s public statements and communications with the outside world because his life on the run from the threat of drone attacks has ruled out regular contact with his followers.
“You have to appreciate that Mullah Omar lives in a difficult predicament. He is living in different places. He is not able to broadcast his ideas. He is on a blacklist with a bounty on his head,” said Motasim. “The international community bears responsibility for this. Anyone who offers information on his whereabouts gets a reward.”
Last month, the latest of the traditional Eid messages issued in Mullah Omar’s name raised the possibility of a power-sharing government but ruled out a ceasefire, insisting the Taliban’s enemies were being “thrashed” and would soon collapse.
Motasim said rank-and-file insurgents are less gung-ho. “A majority of the Taliban believe there is no military solution. They accept that the way out is a dialogue leading to peace. The Taliban realize that if they succeed on the battlefield it will be no success.
“It can’t run a government on its own. If we get to Kabul, the first thing we’ll need is doctors and others who are not with us. After all the bloodletting, we would have to work with people we are fighting.”
Motasim is a former head of the political committee of the Taliban’s ruling council, the Quetta Shura. He was accused by the leadership of embezzlement in 2009, but he denies any wrongdoing and insists he was never found guilty of any charge. Western diplomats believe he was ousted principally because of unauthorised efforts to set up peace talks.
He was shot multiple times in an assassination attempt on a Karachi street in August 2011, after which he fled to Turkey. He says it is unclear who tried to kill him. Western diplomats believe it was either al Qaida or an extreme Taliban faction.
He argued he was in a better position to lead in Ankara than in Pakistan. “Here I have better security and I am more able to keep in contact with the movement. I am directly in touch with area commanders in the south, east and west,” he said.
A western source in regular contact with the Taliban confirmed recently witnessing a group of insurgent commanders consulting Motasim by Skype, and said such consultations were common.
