Invest in health sector, says Taliban Defence Minister

Taliban Defence Minister, Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, in his first appearance before the media in Kabul on Wednesday, urged businessmen to invest in Afghanistan's health sector. Yaqoob is the son of the late Mullah Omar, the Founder and first Supreme Leader of the Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. Speaking at an event at the Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan military hospital in Kabul, Yaqoob said that the decades of war were over in the country.

He called on businessmen to invest in Afghanistan and asked doctors in the country to serve the patients so that no Afghan would have need to seek medical treatment abroad in the future. Following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August, the young Taliban military leader urged his fighters to not harm members of the collapsed Afghan military and government, but to keep off their homes and properties.

In the meantime, Yaqoob has noted that the Taliban have been criticised for fighting Afghans and labelled them as proxy forces of countries. According to him, there cannot be fight against the "invaders" without eliminating the Afghan security forces who were on the front lines in the U.S. war on terror. He stated they couldn't reach the U.S. base; they couldn't carry out jihad against the invaders without eliminating them.