PHOTO: AFP

ISLAMABAD: A day after the Afghan Taliban seized a police base in the southern Helmand province and killed 17 policemen, the militia rejected an appeal by Afghan clerics to cease all attacks in the fasting month of Ramazan.



Instead, the Taliban warned that it would step up attacks during the month. Justifying its actions, the group said that the US troops still continue to “invade” Afghanistan.



Earlier, government-backed religious clerics in Afghanistan had appealed to the Taliban to halt attacks out of respect for Ramazan.



“Everyone knows Afghanistan is under US invasion,” Zabihullah Mujahid, the Afghan Taliban’s spokesman, said on Sunday. “Thousands of American troops are stationed in various parts of the country, including Kabul. The Ramazan truce appeal by the so-called Ulema in Kabul in this situation has no importance in sharia.”



His response to the appeal was: “Since jihad is worship, it is more preferable in the month of Ramazan. Afghanistan’s mujahideen are determined not to stop their jihad in Ramazan, but they will expand it with more force.”



Published in The Express Tribune, June 15th, 2015.