Taliban co-founder Mullah Baradar, set to form new government

Ground Report | New Delhi: Taliban co-founder Mullah Baradar; Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar arrived in Kabul on Saturday to discuss the formation of a new Afghan government with fellow members of the group and other politicians.

Taliban co-founder Mullah Baradar

"He (Mullah Baradar) is in Kabul to meet with jihadi leaders and politicians to form a comprehensive government," a senior Taliban official told AFP. Mullah Baradar, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2010, was released in 2018 under US pressure and later served as the head of the Taliban's political office in Qatar.

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In February last year, the Taliban under his auspices signed an agreement with the United States to withdraw foreign troops. Mullah Baradar arrived in Afghanistan from Qatar on Tuesday. He decided to land in Kandahar, the country's second-largest city and the founder of the Taliban.

Washington is taking news of violence

Within hours of his return, the group announced that this time his style of governing would be "different." The United States has said it is taking reports of harassment or ill-treatment of American citizens in Kabul "with extraordinary seriousness."

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A statement from the State Department said the Taliban had assured Washington that they would allow Afghans who wish to leave the country after August 31 to do so, according to Reuters.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a briefing that US citizens and possibly those evacuating from Kabul were being transferred through several countries in Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia.

Official Taliban websites offline

The Afghan Taliban's websites through which the victorious group delivered messages in five languages ​​in Afghanistan and around the world suddenly went offline on Friday. According to the Associated Press, it was not immediately clear why the sites, which operate in Pashto, Urdu, Arabic, English and Dari, suddenly went offline.

They were protected by the San Francisco-based content delivery network Cloudflare and the Daniel of Service Protection Provider. Cloudflare did not respond to a request for comment. 

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