Taliban Spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid on Thursday rejected claims that Osama Bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda, was behind the 9/11 attacks, saying there was no proof of his involvement.
“Even after 20 years, we have no evidence that Bin Laden was involved in the war. There was no justification of this war. It was an excuse for war,” Mujahid said in an interview to American news channel NBC News.
“Now we have promised that Afghan soil would not be used against anyone,” he said.
Following the 9/11 attacks which killed thousands of people, Bin Laden issued a statement about the event saying: "What America is tasting now, is something insignificant compared to what we have tasted for scores of years. Our nation (the Islamic world) has been tasting this humiliation and this degradation for more than 80 years. Its sons are killed, its blood is shed, its sanctuaries are attacked, and no one hears and no one heeds."
Many have understood this to be Bin Laden's claim for the attacks.
According to an article on the US Department of State website titled The Global War on Terrorism: The First 100 Days, “the world has responded with an unprecedented coalition against international terrorism” following the 9/11 attack.
Then US President George W Bush built a worldwide coalition that “began to destroy al-Qaeda’s grip on Afghanistan by driving the Taliban from power and destroy "al-Qaeda terrorist training camps."
Ahead of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks former US president Donald Trump has stirred some controversy by saying that Bin Laden "wasn't that bad."
In an interview to a radio host, Trump said: "The founder of ISIS is bigger by many, many times—al-Baghdadi—than Osama bin Laden. Osama bin Laden had one hit, and it was a bad one, in New York City, the World Trade Center. But these other two guys were monsters."
The monsters he was referring to were founder of ISIS Abu Bakr Baghdadi and Iranian military leader Qasim Soleimani.
Taliban vow to protect human rights
In reply to a question regarding safety of the Afghans post US troops withdrawal who have worked with foreign forces, Mujahid said, “We don’t want our country men to go to America. Whatever they have done in the past we have given them amnesty.”
“We need young educated professional for our nation. But if they want to leave that is their choice,” he added.
In a message to Afghan women who are terrified of the Taliban rule, the group’s spokesperson assured them that they should not be frightened of the Taliban rather Afghan "women should be proud of them as the group has fought for the country."
