Index – Foreign – Released from Taliban think tank Guantanamo

A man believed to have played a major role in the Taliban’s success this year has been released from the Guantanamo Bay camp as part of a prisoner exchange. New York Post. Khairullah Khairkhawa previously served as the Taliban’s interior minister in Afghanistan, the country occupied by the Americans after they invaded. He was then placed in the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp between 2002 and 2014.

In 2014, he was one of five Taliban prisoners held in Guantanamo in exchange for the release of Bowe Bergdahl, an American captured soldier. handed over to the Taliban. The Barack Obama-led government made this decision despite the Pentagon classifying these five people as extremely dangerous.

Later Republican Senator John McCain also criticized the move. He described them as follows:

They are their most dangerous people.

The released prisoners later re-contacted with the rebels and formed a government-in-exile in Qatar, which also began talks with the Americans. For example, Khairkhava took part in negotiations with the Americans in March in Moscow.

I started doing jihad to drive out foreign forces from my country and form an Islamic government. We will continue jihad until we achieve this goal with a political settlement

Khairkhawa said at the summit.

And now, according to the New York Post, he may be one of the strategists who helped the Taliban win victory and gain power in Afghanistan. Earlier, Khairkhawa had promised the Americans that the Taliban would not go on the offensive after the withdrawal of troops and that they would not take revenge on Afghans who had helped the Americans earlier. Both proved to be false promises.