Taliban leader urges Afghans to plant trees in rare public statement

The government dismissed it as an attempt to 'deceive public opinion' and distract from the Taliban’s crimes.

File photo of the new leader of Taliban fighters, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, who on February 26, 2017 called on Afghans to plant more trees in the springtime in Afghanistan, a move government offiShow more

KABUL // Springtime in Afghanistan usually brings a spike in violence as the Taliban takes advantage of the thaw to launch a wave of fresh attacks. But the Taliban’s leader has just issued a statement calling on Afghans to plant more trees.

In a public letter issued on Sunday in four languages, including English, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada said that “the Mujahideen and beloved countrymen must join hands in tree planting.”

The statement points out that the Taliban remain “actively engaged in a struggle against foreign invaders and their hirelings” – a reference to the Kabul government that the militant group seeks to overthrow.

Shah Hussain Murtazawi, deputy spokesman for Afghan president Ashraf Ghani, dismissed it as an attempt to “deceive public opinion” and distract from the Taliban’s “crimes and destruction”.

“Since the establishment of the Taliban movement the only things that these people have in their minds are fighting, crimes and destruction,” he said. “How is it possible for the Taliban to think about planting trees or protecting the environment in the country?”

Most of Afghanistan’s big cities, including the capital Kabul, are over populated and there are few public green spaces or parks.

According to officials from the Afghan public health ministry, up to 4,000 citizens die each year in Kabul due to illnesses brought on or exacerbated by air pollution.

Wahid Muzhda, a political analyst in Kabul, said that announcements like this – and other statements where they claim to be building roads and bridges – could be part of a Taliban campaign to show that they would provide enlightened leadership in areas of the country that they control.

Mullah Akhunzada’s statement cites Islamic tradition and the words and deeds of the Prophet Mohammed to reinforce its environmental message.

“Tree planting plays an important role in environmental protection, economic development and the beautification of the earth,” it says.

“If the plants and trees are eradicated, life itself would be put in peril, Allah Almighty says.”

Sediq Sediqqi, the interior ministry spokesman, responded by saying the Taliban should stop planting bombs instead.

“They should stop planting IEDs [Improvised Explosive Devices] that are killing so many innocent Afghans including children and women daily”, he said on his Twitter account.

Afghan civilian casualties in 2016 were the highest recorded by the UN, with nearly 11,500 non-combatants killed or wounded.

More than 3,500 children were among the victims, a “disproportionate” increase of 24 percent in one year, the UN said in a recent report.

Afghanistan last year also saw the highest recorded civilian casualties caused by pressure-plate IEDs in a single year, according to the world body.

* Associated Press and Agence France-Presse