Ministry investigating entry of Taliban official

KABUL (Khaama Press): The German Foreign Ministry has condemned the presence and speech of Abdulbari Omar, a Taliban official, at an Islamic centre in the city of Cologne.
The Ministry has announced that it is investigating how he entered Germany. The ministry emphasized that Germany does not recognize the Taliban as an official administration and has not issued a visa to this Taliban figure.
Abdulbari Omar, the head of the Taliban’s Food and Drug Administration, delivered a speech on Thursday at an Islamic centre in Cologne, Germany, for a group of Afghans in the city.
Abdulbari Omar, in his speech defending the Taliban government, said that people should focus on the “achievements of the Taliban” regardless of media reports. He has also shared video footage of his speech on his social media page.
Following the presence and speech of this Taliban official, a significant number of Afghan citizens in Germany expressed their reactions and called for an investigation into this matter.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesperson, wrote on his social media page that Abdulbari Omar spoke about “security, reconstruction, and prosperity” in the country and invited them to use their resources for its prosperity.
The German Foreign Ministry, in a statement on Friday, stated that they do not recognize the Taliban as an official entity, and they had not been informed about this Taliban official’s visit to Germany.
The statement further emphasized that as long as the Taliban openly violate human rights, especially the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, Germany will not normalize its relations with the Taliban regime.
Meanwhile, the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs, where Mr. Omar spoke at one of its buildings in Cologne, stated in a declaration that their trust had been “misused.” They mentioned that an Afghan association had requested to hold religious rituals, but the event turned into a political conference with a speaker they considered “unknown.”
The board of this Islamic union deemed the speech a violation of their contract and an “invasion,” expressing shock and distancing themselves unequivocally from the content of the speech. The Islamic Union firmly rejects any form of association, even moral, with the Taliban.