At the televised event, Mohammad Yaqoob, Afghanistan’s new defense minister, appealed to local business people to invest in hospitals and clinics, signaling that the Taliban are emerging from the shadows.
Taliban Defense Minister Mohammad Yaqoob, son of Taliban founder and late Supreme Leader Mullah Omar, made his first public appearance on Wednesday. (AFP photo)
The son of Taliban founder Mullah Omar first appeared in public on Wednesday when Afghanistan’s hardliners attempt to polish their media image.
At the televised event, Mohammad Yaqoob, Afghanistan’s new defense minister, appealed to local business people to invest in hospitals and clinics, signaling that the Taliban are emerging from the shadows.
As the movement’s top leader during her first reign, Yaqoob’s father, Mullah Omar, rarely appeared in public and photos of him were banned.
Even when the one-eyed cleric died in 2013, the news was not made public for more than two years.
But since the Taliban returned to power in mid-August after a 20-year war against a US-backed government, its ministers have taken on a more open public and political role.
ALSO READ | The US and Taliban had “productive” talks on humanitarian aid, according to the State Department
“Let’s spend some money here. Business people have to come here to build hospitals and clinics, doctors have to come here too,” said Yaqoob at the Sardar Mohammad Dawood Khan Military Hospital in Kabul.
Afghanistan’s health sector has been shaken by the war and the Afghan economy has stalled since the return of the Taliban, who continue to face international sanctions.
Thousands seek treatment abroad, adding to the chaos at the borders, while others flee Taliban rule.
Yaqoob was once the head of a powerful military commission and benefited from the aura of his late father’s cult-like status in the movement.
However, the highest positions in the new government went to comrades of Omar, including Prime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund and his deputy Abdul Ghani Baradar.
Click here for IndiaToday.in’s full coverage of the corona pandemic.
एक टिप्पणी भेजें