The Taliban’s acting Prime Minister, Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, has called for the group’s leaders to be removed from the UN sanctions list.
He made the call during a meeting with the head the United Nation’s Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Rosa Otunbayeva, on Saturday.
This comes after a recent UN Security Council report said that the group had kept close ties with regional terrorist organisations, including Al Qaeda and the TTP, as well as engaging in drug trafficking.
The report also reveals that 58 members of the group’s leadership are under UN sanctions, which restrict their travels abroad.
In a statement after the meeting, the Taliban said that Mawlawi Abdul Kabir told the head of UNAMA that the group’s “general amnesty” had encouraged over 500 former civilian and military members of the previous government to Afghanistan.
But despite the claim, the Taliban has been widely accused of arbitrary detentions, torture and killings of former security and civilian officials.
