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Taliban appointed former Guantanamo Prison inmate Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir as Afghanistan’s Minister of Defense. The appointment of Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir was revealed by a source from the Taliban.
Guantanamo Prison is the US military’s high-security prison in Cuba where high-level terrorists are held. This military prison under the Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) was built to accommodate serious criminals after the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.
Reported Reuters and India Today, Thursday (26/8/2021), Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir is a veteran commander Taliban and also a close associate of Taliban founder Mullah Omar.
Reported Daily Mail, Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir was captured by US -led forces after their invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and detained at Guantanamo Bay until 2007.
He was later released after admitting he had no intention of returning to the battlefield. However, after his release, he is believed to have directed military operations in Helmand before becoming the Taliban’s general military commander.
According to the Arabic news site Alarby, Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir was in charge of troops entering Afghanistan’s presidential palace in Kabul earlier this month after the official government led by President Ashraf Ghani collapsed.
Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir is also said to be a staunch opponent of the peace talks that took place between the Taliban and the Afghan government before the takeover. The appointment of Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir is considered not surprising.
Former Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Salaam Rocketi, who later became a member of the Afghan parliament, previously said that Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir was a ‘legendary battlefield commander’.
“His fame brought him to the attention of Mullah Omar, and the two became close over time,” he added.
Another former commander told CS Monitor that Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir was ‘very experienced in Islamic sharia law. He has also been injured several times, including in the late 1990s by a bomb that also killed four of his close friends.
News of Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir’s appointment comes after US President Joe Biden ignored a request by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other allies to extend the deadline for Kabul’s evacuation beyond August 31. Taliban warned it would not tolerate delays in the departure of Western troops.
Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel used the G7 meeting to pressure Biden for the operation to go on longer, but the pleas did not appear to be heard. White House sources said Biden agreed with the Pentagon that there would be no changes to the mission timeline.
Also watch the video ‘Taliban Reportedly Wants to Make Peace with Rebel Troops’:
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