Afghanistan, “Mullah Baradar in hospital” after Taliban quarrel

The co-founder of the Taliban, Abdul Ghani Baradar, was reportedly injured last week in a dispute with members of the Haqqani network in the presidential palace in Kabul and is reportedly hospitalized in Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan. This was reported by a member of his family to the Pashtun Times media. Read also Baradar, a key figure in the negotiations with the US that led to the Doha agreement last year, indicated by the Taliban as the number two of their ‘government’, “is under Pakistani protection and no one is allowed to see him”, the source said. According to the BBC, Baradar had a heated exchange with Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani, chosen as refugee minister and a leading figure in the Haqqani network. For some days of the deputy prime minister there has been no definite news. The quarrel between the Taliban and the ‘disappearance’ of BaradarLitigano the new masters of Afghanistan. Object of the discord, who should bear the victory and the division of power. Theater of the dispute, the presidential palace in Kabul. A member of the Taliban in Qatar and another source close to the people involved have confirmed the ‘quarrel’ which dates back to the end of last week. The Taliban denied the rumors in this sense, but the news began to circulate after those about the absence of Baradar. According to the BBC sources, it all started due to the disappointment about the new structure of power manifested by Baradar, who would insist on the role diplomacy in the victory (while the Haqqani group would be to attribute all the credit to the fighters) and that he had left Kabul to move to Kandahar after the dispute. For the Taliban Baradar is safe, but they have arrived – notes the BBC – conflicting statements on what keeps him busy. According to a spokesman, he went to Kandahar to meet the supreme leader of the movement, but then BBC Pashto was also told that “he was tired and wanted to rest”. The BBC also cites sources according to which Baradar, after returning to Kabul, could appear in front of the cameras to deny any contrast, while the mystery also remains about the supreme commander, Hibatullah Akhundzada. The latter, the Guardian pointed out yesterday, writing that many wonder if the two ‘big names’ of the movement are still alive, has never appeared in public since, on August 15, the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. The death of Mullah Omar, founder of the movement, was hidden for two years.