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Taliban ask Afghan imams to preach about obedience at Friday prayers
The Taliban asked Afghan imams last week to try to counter negative reports about the group during the first Friday prayers after the group took over the country.
The Taliban urged Afghan preachers to focus on the importance of obeying rulers in their sermons during Friday prayers, Reuters reported citing the Islamist hardline group’s statement. This comes after Thursday’s suicide bombings outside Kabul’s international airport, which killed at least 95 people.
Last week, the Taliban asked Afghan imams to try to counter negative reports about the group during the first Friday prayers and also urge people not to try to flee the country. The Taliban said the imams should "encourage our compatriots to work for the development of the country, and not to try to leave the country" and answer "the negative propaganda of the enemy".
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The Associated Press cited an official on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media that at least 95 Afghans were killed in Thursday’s suicide bombings. The official said the actual death toll is even higher because others were involved in evacuating bodies, AP reported. Afghan and US officials earlier said that at least 60 Afghans and 13 US troops were killed in the bombings.
The suicide attacks came as tens of thousands of people are trying to escape since the hardline Islamist group seized Kabul on August 15.
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Meanwhile, Turkey said it has held its first talks with the Taliban in Kabul and that it was still assessing the Islamist group's offer to run the Afghan capital's airport. "We have held our first talks with the Taliban, which lasted 3.5 hours. If necessary, we will have the opportunity to hold such talks again,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters on Friday.
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He said the talks were held at a military section of the Kabul airport where the Turkish embassy is temporarily stationed.
Erdogan said his country had "no luxury" to stand idly by in the volatile region. "You cannot know what their expectations are or what our expectations are without talking. What's diplomacy, my friend? This is diplomacy," Erdogan said as he responded to domestic criticism over Turkey's engagement with the insurgent group.
(With agency inputs)
