A few days ago, Afghanistan International, a newspaper with a reputation of questionable values and even more questionable reporting, published an article about the “Mir Ali Agreement” that was signed between Sirajuddin Haqqani and various terrorist groups before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021.
This is an absolute fabrication, and we’ll explain why.
First, Afghanistan International was blacklisted by the Taliban itself for questionable reporting, once they came to power. You’ll find that there is an Iran International and an Afghanistan International, but there are no other outlets carrying the same moniker, and both are propaganda outfits that manufacture “news” to gain clicks and readers.
That’s where our first question arose – why would Afghanistan International be carrying the story, rather than any of the other Afghanistan based publications, which have not reported the same story, whether al-Mirsaad (the Taliban’s own mouthpiece), Amu TV, or Tolo News. If an agreement of this caliber had been signed, every outlet in Afghanistan would have carried the story.
Second, other than Afghanistan International, there are only 2, yes 2, outlets that have covered this story. One is india.com, who gave slight variations painting Pakistan in a negative light, and the other is groundzero.pk did a simple copy-paste of the Afghanistan International story, without any additions or editing on their own behalf. Red flag #2.
Now, let’s take the original article in Afghanistan International apart.
“Before returning to power in Afghanistan, the Taliban signed an agreement with the Pakistani Taliban (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan – TTP), al Qaeda and other foreign fighters, pledging their support in jihad and the establishment of a Sharia system in Pakistan after their victory.”
The Taliban cannot survive in Afghanistan without al Qaeda. As a matter of fact, it is al Qaeda that are the de facto rulers of Afghanistan, with the Taliban playing the role of figureheads in government.
“A source close to the Pakistan Taliban told Afghanistan International that Sirajuddin Haqqani, deputy of Mullah Haibatullah, signed the agreement with leaders of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), al Qaeda commanders, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, leader of the Ittehadul Mujahideen Shura of North Waziristan, Maulvi Sadiq Noor Dawar and some other Taliban leaders in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan. The Taliban’s agreement with foreign fighters is known as the Mir Ali Agreement.”
Before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, Sirajuddin Haqqani was not a deputy to Haibatullah, rather he was the head of the Haqqani Network, an extremely powerful militant group responsible for the murders of hundreds of US and NATO troops. Haqqani only became the deputy after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan. Also, the Hafiz Gul Bahadar group, a splinter group of the TTP itself, has carried out more attacks inside Pakistan than the TTP has post-Taliban takeover.
“The source added that after Pakistan’s airstrikes on its militants in April 2022 in Spera district, Khost, Taliban Defense Minister Mullah Yaqoob summoned Pakistani Taliban leaders, including Hafiz Gul Bahadar, and asked them to stop their attacks in Pakistan. However, Hafiz Gul Bahadar, who has supported the Haqqani Network and al Qaeda in North Waziristan for years, showed Mullah Yaqoob the Mir Ali Accord, which emphasized on the Afghan Taliban’s support for these foreign militants.”
Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Interior Minister of Afghanistan, who signed the agreement on behalf of the Afghan Taliban, hadn’t shown the agreement to Haibatullah Akundzada, the Emir of the Taliban, or Mullah Yaqoob, the Defense Minister of Afghanistan?
Does that really make sense to anyone reading these words?
“The agreement was signed because foreign militants, especially the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan fought alongside the Afghan Taliban against the former Afghan government, NATO, and US forces to revive the Taliban regime. In the agreement, the Taliban pledged to reciprocate cooperation with foreign fighters and jihadi militants from other countries.”
Let’s take the falsehoods out of the story.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan fought alongside al Qaeda against the US and NATO forces, but was working hand-in-hand with Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Intelligence (NDS) to establish strategic depth against Pakistan, as reported in the New York Times and My Enemy’s Enemy.
So how were they fighting that Afghan government?
Many will recall that the Taliban, once taking power, issued an edict that all foreign fighters must register with the Taliban government and swear an oath to not use Afghanistan soil against any nation, which was one of the clauses of the Doha Accords. So how was the Afghan Taliban offering their support to foreign fighters to wage jihad against other nations?
While we all know that the Taliban was deceiving the world while taking funds from the US to fight the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), how were they working in direct collaboration with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan based on a signed document that directly violated their agreement with the United States?
While the Taliban supposedly signed this agreement with the TTP, HGB and other anti-Pakistan groups, why was the same support not offered to ETIM, IMU, and other terror groups who were targeting China, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan?
“Another source told Afghanistan International that after the death of former al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, Sirajuddin Haqqani and Mullah Yaqoob asked foreign fighters to move to remote areas, where they are away from domestic and international surveillance. They no longer considered Kabul safe for foreign fighters, al Qaeda leaders and TTP commanders.”
Aymen al-Zawahiri was killed in a US drone strike on July 31, 2022, almost one year after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.
Once the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, what domestic surveillance were Sirajuddin and Mullah Yaqoob concerned with? With the intelligence agency in their hands, there should have been no threat to foreign fighters, al Qaeda leaders and TTP commanders anywhere in Afghanistan – if the Taliban were dealing honestly with the foreign terror groups they were harboring.
The TTP has always been based along the Pak-Afghan border in Nuristan, Nangarhar, Khost, Kunar and Paktika provinces. They have never left the border region since being pushed across during Operation Zarb-e-Azb.
al-Zawahiri’s killing in a US drone strike had raised many concerns in the al Qaeda circles because he was living in a Haqqani Network safe house, and many believed that Sirajuddin Haqqani himself had given the location to the US military to neutralize al-Zawahiri. This belief is still held among many al Qaeda commanders today.
Here’s the admission of that statement from the article itself, where Mullah Baradar supposedly said to Sirajuddin Haqqani – “By sheltering Ayman al-Zawahiri, you proved me a liar to the international community. But Sirajuddin replied that al-Zawahiri’s residence in Kabul was provided with the consent of Mullah Haibatullah Akundzada” – a bold faced lie from Haqqani as it was a Haqqani Network safe house that was hit by the drone strike killing the al Qaeda leader.
“According to Afghanistan International’s investigation, al Qaeda has transferred some of its members to the provinces of Logar, Helmand, Nuristan, Kunar, Zabul, Herat, and Farah. Uyghur fighters of the East Turkestan Movement (ETIM) have been sent to Herat province, due to China’s sensitivities.”
ETIM has always been based in Badakhshan. They were moved at one point after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, but they returned to their main base in Badakhshan almost immediately because they were not happy with the new location. They are still based in Badakhshan, while Haji Forqan was recently moved to Kabul for his own safety, as his location had been leaked to Chinese intelligence. ETIM’s current training base is in such a remote area of Badakhshan that all supplies are flown in via helicopter by Abdul Wasiq, head of the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI), and Tajmir, his 2nd in command at the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI).
al Qaeda, on the other hand, maintains its largest base in Paktika, with many other bases spread across Afghanistan, with the full support of the Afghan Taliban.
“In May 2022, the Taliban government proposed, at Pakistan’s request, that TTP members be transferred from Afghanistan’s border areas to the north, Logar and Ghazni, but the TTP did not consider these areas suitable for its activities.”
Another falsehood being put forward.
The TTP members were re-branded as Waziristan refugees and moved to Badakhshan and Takhar first, where the Taliban removed the Tajik Governor and replaced him with a Pashtun, even though Badakhshan is a Tajik majority area. This caused significant internal strife within the Taliban, where the Tehreek-e-Taliban Tajikistan (TTT) broke off from the Afghan Taliban and announced their plans for a Greater Tajikistan, where they would take Badakhshan from the Taliban.
In July 2024, CommandEleven exposed the Taliban’s double dealing by uncovering the housing units and training camps specifically built for both the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Hafiz Gul Bahadar Group (HGB), as well as stating leadership from HGB had visited the location and selected homes for themselves. Their next-door neighbors – al Qaeda.
Prior to this being uncovered, Qatar had given the Taliban USD 40m to build housing for the various terror groups that were attacking Pakistan to remove them from the Pak-Afghan border.
In December 2024, prior to Khalil-ur-Rehman Haqqani’s assassination by a suicide bomber, the Taliban had taken up the cause to move the TTP and other anti-Pakistan terror groups from the border to Ghazni province, passing the decision on pressure from the Chinese government.
“Sources close to the TTP said that the Taliban government had asked TTP leader Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud to refrain from appearing in public, but he replied ‘The sun cannot be hidden with two fingers.’”
Absolute falsehood. Noor Wali Mehsud has made numerous trips to Kabul to meet with both the Taliban Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, as well as making the direct threat that if they were forced to cease attacks against Pakistan, the TTP would join ISKP. Noor Wali Mehsud is in hiding for the same reason that Haibatullah Akhundzada is in hiding – they are after of being targeted in a drone strike by the US or Pakistan.
“According to sources, the Taliban government has banned leaders and commanders of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militant groups from giving interviews to the media and appearing in cities.”
Yet, they have no problem facilitating them in crossing the Pakistan border and roaming the streets of villages in Pakistan?
The article is not just to disprove the level of false reporting coming out of Afghanistan, but to show that the Taliban, and its affiliated terror groups, are masters of deception and propaganda. An agreement that was signed in 2021, before the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, is just now being made public, after Donald Trump became President of the United States and the USD 87m the Biden administration was sending to the Taliban have been stopped.
Doesn’t it just stink of the same cow manure that the Taliban has been selling to the international community for the last 4 years?
