Taliban vows to not launch attacks on quake affected areas

Taliban’s spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid in his recent statement said that the Taliban group would not launch military attacks on earthquake affected areas.

Mujahid noted that all Taliban members have been instructed to not launch attacks on affected areas unless the Afghan forces launch attacks against them.

He further added that the Taliban group would not interfere with Afghan government-led efforts to deliver assistance to thousands of people suffering in the aftermath of this week’s magnitude 7.5 earthquake.

The Taliban has waged a series of bloody battles in recent months with troops supporting the Western-backed government in Kabul.

As a result, earthquake relief efforts had been hamstrung by security concerns. The Taliban — or Islamic Emirate — indicated that it would not hinder emergency teams.

The Taliban is trying to reinvent itself and appeal more to the population under their new leader, Akhtar Mansour. After capturing Kunduz, Taliban fighters were ordered not to attack civilians, and this new offer to cooperate with aid organizations appears to keep in line with that goal.

The initial magnitude 7.5 quake on Monday afternoon was followed by seven aftershocks, measuring as high as magnitude 4.8, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The latest aftershock came just before dawn on Tuesday.

The quake was 213 km (132 miles) deep and centred 254 km (158 miles) northeast of Kabul and comes almost exactly six months after Nepal suffered its worst quake on record on April 25. Including the toll from a major aftershock in May, 9,000 people lost their lives there and 900,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.