20-Year-Old Haqqani Aide: You Can’t Rule by Force

Abdullah Reyhan, a former aide to Sirajuddin Haqqani, wrote in a note that you can’t win the hearts of the people and rule them by force, and addressed Taliban officials: “We should do what we want, but the people should be allowed and given the freedom to judge the rule.”
Abdullah Reyhan, who has worked as an aide and one of the closest people to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s interior minister, for more than twenty years, criticized the group’s governance style in a note on Wednesday, August 25.
The former Taliban member, who now introduces himself as a journalist, wrote to Taliban officials: “Our goals are bigger, small things should not stop us from achieving big goals.”
Abdullah Reyhan emphasized in this note that if a number of Afghans today are attached to another flag, it does not mean that these people are “betraying.” “Perhaps we have not yet performed the work that is worthy of the homeland and the nation, with the necessary honesty and sacrifice,” he said.
The veteran Taliban member added that the Afghan people have worked hard and strived for a century, and not all issues can be managed in four years. The people should be given a chance and the government should also use this time to improve its situation.
Khalid Zadran, spokesman for the Taliban police command in Kabul, introduced Abdullah Rayhan as one of the people very close to Haqqani during the war in his memoirs of the twenty years of war, titled “15 Minutes.”
In this book, Zadran referred to Abdullah Rayhan as Haqqani’s “comrade of sacrifice” and wrote that he was in charge of the Manb-ul-Jihad studio during the war with the previous government. The films “Caravan of Ghazis” and “Badri Army” were made by Abdullah Rayhan, describing Taliban fighters.
However, Abdullah Rayhan wrote in his note: “I don’t care who supports which flag and why they support it. “It is important for me that the message of truth and justice of the white flag reaches the hearts of the people of the country,” he added. “What is more important is that the fragmented and downtrodden nation of Afghanistan unites under one flag and lives with pride.” The Taliban member’s note encouraged the group’s leaders to learn from past experiences and mistakes. “When we prove our belief in the field and strengthen the pillars of the system, the country will not fall again,” he wrote. Abdullah Reyhan emphasized that achieving all this requires effort, sacrifice, and determination.