Afghan politician defects to Taliban

September 20, 2013

A former Afghan senator and district governor has defected to the Taliban in the northern province of Sar-e-Pol, officials have told the BBC.

Qazi Abdul Hai served as a senator between 2004 and 2008 and was later made a district governor in Sar-e-Pol.

Correspondents say he is thought to be the highest-ranking civilian official to have joined the Taliban.

The move comes as foreign combat forces prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014 and ahead of elections next year.

Hai is believed to have defected to the Taliban along with two of his bodyguards on Tuesday.

As a tribal elder and former senator and official, Qazi Abdul Hai has some influence locally. But he doesn’t have a big following and it is unlikely that it would dramatically increase Taliban strength in the area. Nevertheless, this defection is symbolically significant.

Low-level defections to the Taliban, mostly by Afghan policemen, have happened in several parts of the country. But this is the first time a former official and politician of this status has defected.

But there is also a significant propaganda element for the Taliban. They have been promoting this as a success of their integration program and say that he switched sides after “realizing the reality” and “seeing the truth”.

Source: The Punch.
Link: http://www.punchng.com/news/world/afghan-politician-defects-to-taliban/.

Afghan Taliban vow attacks over Ramadan after being hacked

KABUL | Fri Jul 5, 2013

(Reuters) - The Afghan Taliban promised on Friday to continue attacks over Ramadan, rejecting as a fake an insurgent email promising a halt in violence over the coming Muslim holy month and saying it was the work of government intelligence.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the message sent in his name promising a temporary cessation of violence with next week's start of Ramadan was the latest incident in a simmering cyber war between intelligence agencies and the insurgents.

"In that mail the enemy losers have tried to influence attacks by mujahideen fighters," Mujahid said. "We strongly reject sending any such email on a stoppage of operations."

Afghan spy agency the National Directorate of Security has increasingly targeted the Taliban's sophisticated messaging network, which includes websites and email accounts, social media and spokesmen using noms de guerre.

The Taliban use Afghanistan's improving phone network to distribute anti-government messages and use Twitter to claim largely improbable successes as most foreign combat troops look to leave the country by 2014.

The Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan with an iron fist from 1996 to 2001, are seeking to overthrow the U.S.-backed government and end foreign occupation.

While Ramadan is usually a relatively quiet month for insurgent attacks marked mainly by the use of roadside bombs rather than direct assaults by armed fighters, Zabihullah said the month also carried extra religious significance for insurgents.

"During the holy month of Ramadan, jihad has major rewards. And mujahideen will continue to employ all their fighting techniques to mount attacks on the enemy," he said.

Taliban fighters in 2011 used car bombs to attack a British government cultural center in the Afghan capital over the Ramadan period, killing almost a dozen people.

This year the militants have stepped up attacks ahead of the Afghan summer months. Insurgents including a suicide bomber attacked a foreign logistics and supply company last week in Kabul, the latest in a string of daring assaults in the capital.

Kabul's police chief General Mohammad Ayoub Salangi said on Friday that security forces had arrested three people in a night raid and seized five suicide bomb vests.

(Reporting by Rob Taylor and Mirwais Harooni; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/05/us-afghanistan-taliban-idUSBRE9640DT20130705.