Taliban lauds suicide bombers

Dr. Jassim Taqui

DG Al-Bab Institute for Strategic Studies

Islamabad, October 22,  2021: In a shocking development, the Taliban hosted an event on Monday for male relatives of suicide bombers in a luxury hotel in Kabul. The acting government called them “heroes of Islam” and handed over cash and land to their families.

The event was in the memory of bombers who killed themselves in their service against officials of the previous government and its Western allies.

According to Taliban spokesperson Qari Saeed Khosty, Sirajuddin Haqqani, the acting interior minister, met with the team of suicide bombers.

Khosty shared a few pictures on Twitter of the event. Haqqani greeted the families of suicide bombers who had killed themselves and posed for photographs with them.

“In his speech, the minister praised the Jihad and sacrifices of the martyrs and Mujahidin and called them heroes of Islam and the country,” said Khosty.

Families, he said, of the suicide bombers were given clothing, $125, and promised plots of land.

Sirajuddin Haqqani is the head of the Haqqani Network. He has been designated a “global terrorist” by the US and has a $10 million bounty on his head.

By this move, the Taliban only confirms the UN report that classifies it as a “terrorist outfit” and blocks in the process any initiative to recognize the movement.

Suicide attacks thousands of innocent people while Holy Quran proclaims,” If anyone kills a human soul, it would be as if he killed the whole mankind, and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all mankind” Al-Maida verses 32-33.