The Taliban have said they seek no “revenge” on opponents and that everyone will be “forgiven”, during the first press conference held by the hardline Islamist group since
taking power in Kabul on Sunday.
Saying the group did not seek “internal or external enemies”, their spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters invited to the media centre used by the former Afghan government that the group wanted to “congratulate the [Afghan] nation” for its victory.
“We assure you that nobody will go to their doors to ask why they helped,” he said, despite reports from different parts of the country that
Taliban fighters were doing precisely that. He encouraged people who had fled to the airport with their families to return.
Mujahid added a vaguely worded pledge to honour women’s rights and allow them to work, but within the group’s interpretation of Islamic law, and said private media would be permitted to “remain independent” if journalists “did not work against national values”.
There were a series of assurances apparently aimed at the international community, including a promise to end the narcotics trade from
Afghanistan and to prevent the country being used as a base by terrorist groups to attack other countries.