An Australian journalist has revealed the disturbing details Taliban leaders told her in a face-to-face interview promising stonings for women, executions in soccer stadiums and amputations for criminals.
BBC reporter Yalda Hakim says she travelled to Afghanistan earlier this month and met with Taliban officials who reportedly told her they wanted to return to the regime they had installed during the 1990s.
She said they will look to implement the barbaric torture and archaic human rights atrocities that plagued their leadership before western intervention.
‘I sat down with a Taliban frontline commander. He said to me: “We want to return to the kind of rule we had in the 90s”,’ Ms Hakim told Q&A.
‘When I asked about a women committing adultery, he said: “Of course we’ll have stonings. We’ll have public executions, using soccer stadiums to do that, there’ll be amputations of hands and feet if someone were to commit the crime of theft”.’
“Of course we’ll have stonings. We’ll have public executions, using soccer stadiums to do that, there’ll be amputations of hands and feet if someone were to commit the crime of theft”
Yalda Hakim says she travelled to Afghanistan earlier this month and met with officials from the Taliban who told her they want to return to the regime they had installed during the 1990s
Ms Hakim, who has spoken to members of the Taliban leadership both in person and live on TV, says the terrorist organisation claim they are simply following the law of Quran.
‘They said: “This is all laid out in the Quran, this is all Sharia law, if you want to live in it, great, if not you’ll face the reprisals you need to”,’ she told the ABC.
The BBC journalist, who fled Afghanistan with her family during the Soviet-Afghan war and moved to Australia when she was three, says the Taliban have distanced themselves from terrorist groups.
‘The conversations I had with them was: “We are not going to turn Afghanistan into a terrorist heaven”,’ she said.
‘The issues of human rights and women’s rights, that memo hasn’t trickled down to the foot soliders, but one thing that has is: “You make it clear you in no way are affiliated with Al Qaeda”, for example.
‘But we know, from the assessments of the US Treasury and the UN that the Taliban are still very much linked and protecting Al Qaeda.’
Ms Hakim, who has spoken to members of the Taliban leadership both in person and live on TV, says the terrorist organisation claim they are simply following the law of Quran
Ms Hakim said despite denials from the Taliban, intelligence suggets they are still harbouring terrorist organisations including Al Qaeda
Ms Hakim fled Afghanistan with her family during the Soviet-Afghan war and moved to Australia when she was three, going to school in Parramatta and studying journalism
She said she’s hearing from people in the provinces of Afghanistan as well as in the capital Kabul showing soldiers from around the Middle East including Yemen, Iraq and Syria controlling residents.
Ms Hakim received a phone call on Sunday from the terrorist group’s spokesman Suhail Shaheen on her mobile phone during her BBC World News show.
She quickly put the phone next to a guest microphone so viewers could hear Mr Shaheen claim victory as the Taliban recaptured Kabul after 20 years in exile.
He said: ‘We assure the people of Afghanistan particularly in the city of Kabul, that their properties, their lives are safe, there will be no revenge on anyone.’
Mr Shaheen described the Taliban as the ‘servants of the people and of this country’ and said the group’s leaders were ‘awaiting a peaceful transfer of power’.
Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen (pictured in March 2021) spoke to BBC News on Sunday
The extraordinary 30-minute interview, which has been widely shared, began with Ms Hakim saying: ‘Mr Shaheen, can you hear me?’ Mr Shaheen replied, saying: ‘Yes.’
Working out how she was going to get him on air, Ms Haki, said: ‘OK, we’ve just got you on the phone, so we’re just going to see if we can put you on speaker. Can our viewers hear that? Can you speak sir, can you just introduce him?’
Mr Shaheen, who is based in Qatar, said: ‘Yes, I’m Muhammad Suhail Shaheen, member of the negotiations team of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and spokesman of the Taliban.’
Ms Hakim continued: ‘Is that fine? Can our viewers hear that? OK. Mr Shaeen, there is a lot of chaos and confusion in Kabul at the moment. Can you just help us understand what the Taliban plan to do at present, and next?’
And he replied: ‘Yes. There should not be any confusion in Kabul, we assure the people of Afghanistan, particularly in the city of Kabul, that their properties, their lives are safe, there will be no revenge on anyone.
‘We are the servants of the people and of this country. Our leadership have instructed our forces to remain at the gate of the Kabul, not to enter the city. We are awaiting a peaceful transfer of power.’
The BBC’s Yalda Hakim fled her native Afghanistan as a child and was brought up in Sydney
Taliban fighters take control of the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul on Sunday
Ms Hakim said: ‘When you say peaceful transfer of power, what do you mean? What is actually likely to happen?’
And Mr Shaeen said: ‘It means that the city and the power should be handed over to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and then in future we will have an Afghan inclusive Islamic Government in which all Afghans will have participation.’
Continuing to press him, Ms Hakim said: ‘When you say participation, do you mean one vote, one person? What do you mean by participation’
And Mr Shaheen: ‘No, participation means that we will have in the Government other Afghans. They will be part – we will have them in the future Government.’
Ms Hakim asked him: ‘But it will all fall under the umbrella of the Government of the Taliban, the Islamic Emirate as you describe it?’
And Mr Shaheen said: ‘Yes, there will be, as I said, an Afghan inclusive Islamic government.’