Yasin Zia, leader of the Afghanistan Freedom Front, says the group will continue its armed struggle against the Taliban and does not consider negotiations and peace with the group to be a solution.
Speaking at an online event marking Martyrs’ Week, Zia said the purpose of continuing the fight was to achieve justice and create the conditions for power to be transferred from the Taliban to the Afghan people.
“We did not choose war for the sake of war. We chose it to bring justice,” he said.
Zia also called for greater attention to Afghanistan’s post-Taliban future, saying opponents of the Taliban should prepare for the period after the group’s rule ends.
He claimed that the situation was slipping beyond the Taliban’s control and accused the group of using YouTubers and psychological warfare to portray a different picture of conditions in the country.
Zia rejected reports of divisions among Taliban opponents and said there were no major differences between them. He also distinguished between former members of the republic government and what he described as genuine opponents of the Taliban, saying a former position in the republic government alone did not mean someone was opposed to the Taliban.
He dismissed concerns that Afghanistan could descend into chaos after the Taliban, arguing that if the Taliban were capable of governing the country, their opponents should also be capable of running it after the Taliban.
The Afghanistan Freedom Front is one of the armed groups opposing the Taliban. It began operations against the group after the Taliban returned to power in 2021 and has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan.
