Kabul: Afghan Taliban on Wednesday appealed to the Muslim world for donations for their insurgency in a rare move that analysts said was part of their media war.
According to reports the appeal was posted on Taliban website with telephone hotlines and email addresses, asking Muslims worldwide to help the rebels in what they say is a “Jihad”, or a holy war, against non-Muslim “invaders”.
“In the light of Islamic sharia, all Muslims everywhere are duty-bound to join the Jihad with money and soul,” the militant group said.
“(The Taliban) are still waging legitimate Jihad single-handedly with mere help from common sincere Islam-loving masses and is in dire need of financial assistance from the Muslim brothers worldwide for its military and non-military expenditures,” it added.
The Taliban were in power between 1996 and 2001 but were toppled in a US-led invasion after refusing to turn in Osama Bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda wanted by Washington for the September 11, 2001, attacks on US cities.
Since being ousted, the remnants of the militia have waged a bloody insurgency.
The appeal appeared to be part of the rebels’ “media war”, a move to show their campaign is supported by the masses, said analyst Abdul Waheed Wafa Wafa, director of the Afghanistan Centre, a research body at Kabul University.
“I think it’s part of the Taliban propaganda war,” he told AFP adding that through this they were trying to show that their Jihad is supported by the people and their funds were coming from the people.
According to Western and Afghan intelligence most Taliban funds are generated from regional Muslim communities and Islamist networks in the Gulf states.
The nation’s Western-backed government also accuses neighbouring Pakistan’s radical groups of funding the Taliban insurgency, mostly a campaign of suicide attacks and other bombings.
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