KABUL - Northern Kunduz governor, Assadullah Omarkhil, on Saturday told TOLOnews that President Ashraf Ghani had ordered him to by death benefits to the families of Taliban members killed in clashes.
Omarkhil said that a team from Kabul visited Kunduz to distribute the money.
Omarkhil added that the money was given to the families of Taliban fighters killed in the Buz-e-Kandahari attack.
Kunduz governor also stressed that the money paid to Taliban families was not from the same fund as that used to pay Afghan soldiers’ death benefits, but it was sent by central government to the province.
“This was the aid which was considered by the president himself to be given to the families. As representatives of the president, we called the families here and gave them the money, which was brought here by a delegation,” Omarkhail said.
According to Omarkhil, Taliban families are not involved in what Taliban fighters do and that they deserved the support.
"We cannot say that the child will follow his father Mullah Mottaqi. Also, we cannot say that he will become a good person (in the future)," he added.
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) meanwhile confirmed that representatives of the ministry had gone to Kunduz to give support to the Taliban families.
“The delegation which went there (to Kunduz) was representing the Ministry of Defense, but they (the delegation) told us that the budget which was allocated for martyrs and disabled persons of the Defense Ministry was never used for the Taliban,” said Mohammad Radmanesh, MoD spokesman.
CEO Abdullah Abdullah also expressed the same opinion about the Taliban families, but said giving money to Taliban families needed further investigations.
“We cannot count the local residents as members of the Taliban if someone from their relatives are among the Taliban. But despite that I insist that government will decide on the case if investigations showed something different,” he said.
"This is a complicated issue and it is not known what is the reason behind the support. Before this a number of government officials said that the Taliban receives most of their equipment from government institutions, Nazari Paryani, a military analyst said.
Government pays 100,000 AFs to the families of martyred Afghan soldiers, but the families do go through a complicated process before receiving the funds. (Tolonews)