PESHAWAR, Oct 29: The family of the executed Afghan commander Abdul Haq here on Monday expressed the resolve to continue making efforts for the restoration of peace and normality to Afghanistan hinting at no possibility of a dialogue with Taliban to arrive at a negotiated settlement of the Afghan conflict.
“Our revenge from those who executed Abdul Haq would be the restoration of peace to Afghanistan,” said Haji Din Mohammed, a former Afghan commander and the elder brother of Abdul Haq executed by Taliban.
In the first public reaction to Abdul Haq’s execution, at a largely-attended press conference here on Monday, the family of the slain Afghan commander rejected the impression that commander Haq was on a mission to implement American agenda in Afghanistan.
“He had gone went to Afghanistan purely on a peace mission and the family will continue his mission,” Din Mohammad said. “We will consult Afghans, our people and all those who believe in a peaceful settlement to the Afghan crisis,” said Haji Din Mohammed, adding “we won’t talk to those who have opened firing on us.”
About his brother’s burial inside Afghanistan Haji Din Mohammed said they had sent a delegation of elders and family members living in Afghanistan to Kabul to bring the body after the Taliban had initially agreed to allow the body to be brought to Pakistan for burial. However, near Jalalabad, Taliban forces stopped the convoy asking them to bury the body at Hisarak — the area where commander Haq was arrested.
“They refused on the pretext that the body would be given to America,” said Din Mohammed.
Dispelling the impression that Haq went to Afghanistan on his peace mission after availing assurances from Afghan organizations to get the removal of the Taliban regime, Din Mohammed rejected reports that American helicopters carried out any rescue operation to help Haq flee Afghanistan.
“The bombing in the area, where Haq was arrested, has no links with any rescue operations by American troopers. It was part of the regular American airstrikes in several parts of Afghanistan,” Din Mohammed said, denying the information Haq’s close friend James Ritchie’s statement on Saturday.
Ritchie, an American friend of commander Haq who was staying at Haq’s Hayatabad house in Peshawar before the US launched attacks on Afghanistan, had told newsmen that American helicopter made a failed attempt to rescue Haq while he was trying to flee before being caught by the Taliban.
Din Mohammed said the Taliban wanted Haq’s body to be buried in the Hisarak area. However, after arguments by some of the family members and elders present on the occasion the Taliban troops allowed his body to be buried at Surkhrod, the area where the family’s ancestral graveyard is situated.
