Taliban leaders celebrate Eid with families in Qatar
The five Taliban leaders, who were released recently under a landmark exchange deal, celebrated Eid with their families for the first time in 13 years in Qatar.
Under the prisoner exchange deal between the US and the Taliban that was mediated successfully by Qatar, five Taliban leaders held in Guantanamo Bay prison for 13 years were released on May 31 and then flown into Doha on June 1.
At the exact time, an American soldier held captive by the Taliban since June 2009 was handed over to a US Special Forces team in Khost, Afghanistan.
The five released Taliban leaders, Maulvi Mohamed Nabi Umari, Mullah Abdul Haq Waseeq, Mullah Noorulallah Noori, Mullah Mohamed Fazil Akhund and Mullah Khairullah Khairkhuwa are now adjusting to their new lives in Qatar along with their families.
According to several eyewitnesses, some of these Taliban leaders were also spotted on the first day of Eid at one of Qatar’s largest mosques, where they attended Eid prayers.
Since the Taliban leaders are in Qatar under a special arrangement, they did not have to meet the formal requirements applicable to foreigners to bring in their families.
When asked whether the released Taliban leaders liked Doha, where they now live, a senior Taliban source, who is close to them, said: “As you can imagine, these poor people have gone through a lot [of pain] in the last 13 years at Guantanamo Bay. It’s not about whether they like to be in Qatar or not. They’re just glad that they are out of that place and are now with their families. Alhumdullilah, they are all doing fine here.”
Unlike Sgt Bergdahl, who has reportedly started a desk job at the army headquarters and was set to paid around $350,000 for wages earned during his captivity, the five Taliban leaders are not expected to be given any such wages by the Taliban leadership.
In fact, their exact role in the movement was still being evaluated by the Taliban Shura, especially since they remained unaware of the internal dynamics of the militant group, which has changed over the period of the last 13 years.
Gasoline, they are probably too old and broken to commit any terrorists acts themselves, but I'm sure they can't wait to get back to Afghanistan to encourage younger people to kill infidels in their version of religion.
What a touching picture of him hugging his family, shame they could out beside it the men, women and children murdered I Afghanistan because of these men. Maybe show a mother hugging the skeleton of her dead son being reunited for Eid.
"The five released Taliban leaders, Maulvi Mohamed Nabi Umari, Mullah Abdul Haq Waseeq, Mullah Noorulallah Noori, Mullah Mohamed Fazil Akhund and Mullah Khairullah Khairkhuwa are now adjusting to their new lives in Qatar along with their families."
Wait, the Taliban is in Qatar?! How long until they target Westerners and kidnap them or start blowing things up etc? This is not good.
It also makes me laugh someone would report my first comment. Being against murderers and torturers is a bad thing? Or maybe they think all those shias, (thousands of them) deserved to die.
It just make you sick.
“As you can imagine, these poor people have gone through a lot [of pain] in the last 13 years"
Well I guess the people they murdered because they didn't like their religion or those that opposed their barbaric rule of Afghanistan are not in pain any more because they are dead. No justice for those people from these scum of the earth.
Does anyone else find this quite disgusting? These are men implicated in the murder of thousands of shia muslims in Afghanistan as well as the torture and murder of many others. They also oppressed a whole nature which a vicious religious ideology and took women back to the stone age.
Those family members they murdered in the name of religion will never get to celebrate Eid with their family members again.