We forgive Ashraf Ghani, Amrullah Saleh and Hamdullah Mohib, says Taliban

A Marine with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Central Command and a child spray water at each other during an evacuation at the Kabul airport, Afghanistan. Pic/AP/PTI

Taliban have extended amnesty to ousted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Afghan former Vice President Amrullah Saleh, senior Taliban leader Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani said.

Speaking to Geo News on Sunday, Haqqani, a Haqqani Network leader who has been put in charge of Kabul security, said, "We forgive Ashraf Ghani, Amrullah Saleh, and (Afghan Presidential Security Adviser) Hamdullah Mohib. We forgive everyone, starting from a general who fought against us to a common person."

Haqqani added the group forgave "everyone from our end; from the general to the common man" and they can return to the country, Sputnik reported. The enmity between the Taliban and the three officials was only on the basis of religion and "driven by the ambition to change the system," he said, noting that "the system has now changed."

Ghani fled the country after Taliban terrorists entered Kabul. He is currently in the UAE. His vice-president - Amrullah Saleh - has anointed himself as ‘legitimate caretaker President' of Afghanistan and is reportedly in the Panjshir province.

On August 15, the Taliban entered the presidential palace in the Afghan capital on Sunday and declared its victory over the government after months of violence in Afghanistan.

Days after taking control of the country, the Taliban announced a "general amnesty" for all Afghan government officials and urged them to return to work, including women corresponding with Sharia law.

‘Afghanistan shouldn't become an epicentre of terrorism'

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday said Afghanistan is a key battlefront in the global fight against terrorism from where extremist ideas have been exported to the region, hoping that the country does not become an "epicentre of terrorism" after the Taliban seized Kabul.

Firefight kills Afghan soldier outside airport

A firefight at one of the gates of Kabul's international airport killed at least one Afghan soldier early on Monday, German officials said, the latest chaos to engulf Western efforts to evacuate those fleeing the Taliban takeover of the country. The shooting at the airport came as the Taliban sent fighters north of the capital to eliminate pockets of armed resistance to their lightning takeover earlier this month. The Taliban said they retook three districts seized by opponents the day before and had surrounded Panjshir.

‘New govt will be formed soon'

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid announced that talks on the formation of a new government with Afghan political leaders were underway and that a new government will be announced soon. "Our political officials met with leaders, their views are important, discussions are moving, there is hope for an announcement on the government soon," TOLO News quoted Mujahid as saying on Sunday.

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