New Delhi: A major row broke out between the Taliban cabinet members over the structure of the group’s new government, according to a BBC report Wednesday.
The report said senior Taliban officials told BBC that the insurgent group’s co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was named the acting deputy prime minister last week, entered into a disagreement with another cabinet member.
The incident took place at the presidential palace in Kabul, however, the BBC did not explicitly mention when.
Baradar reportedly entered into a war of words with acting minister of refugees Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani, a key figure within the militant Haqqani Network, a group designated by the US as a terrorist organisation.
The incident was also confirmed to the BBC by a senior Taliban member based in Qatar.
Speaking to BBC Pashto, a Taliban source said Baradar and Haqqani “exchanged strong words” at the presidential palace and their followers “brawled” with each other nearby.
Earlier this week, Baradar purportedly released a voice message rejecting rumours of his death.
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Diplomacy versus fighting
According to the report, Baradar was unhappy with the structure of the new Taliban government and the disagreement with Haqqani had to do with who in the Taliban should take credit for their victory in Afghanistan.
Baradar reportedly believes that people like him who wielded their diplomatic power should be given credit, added the report. Baradar previously served as the defence minister during the first Taliban regime and headed the insurgent group’s political office in Doha. He played a key role during peace talks with the US in 2020, though his name figures on the UN blacklist.
Meanwhile, members of the Haqqani group and their followers say the victory in Afghanistan was possible due to fighting. The Haqqani Network is affiliated with the Taliban and has been responsible for several attacks in Afghanistan, including a bombing in Kabul in 2017 that killed over 150 people.
Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani is not the only top Haqqani leader in the Taliban cabinet. Sirajuddin Haqqani, son of the founder of the Haqqani Network who has been the leader of the group since 2012, was named Interior Minister last week.
In 2015, the Taliban confirmed that they had been covering up their former leader Mullah Omar’s death for more than two years. Official statements continued to be released in the leader’s name until it was announced that had died in a hospital in Pakistan.
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