Agha Jan Motasim

Agha Jan Motasim
Nationality Afghanistan
Other names Motasim Agha Jan
Known for Taliban leader

Agha Jan Motasim is a moderate member of the Taliban's leadership and a member of the Quetta Shura.[1] During the Taliban's administration of Afghanistan he was their Finance Minister.[2][3] Following their ouster he was a member of the Quetta Shura. Prior to the war in Afghanistan Motasim was the chair of the Quetta Shura's political committee.

In August 2010 Motasim was targeted by assassins and nearly died after advocating the Taliban should negotiate participation in Afghanistan's mainstream political process.[1][2] “My idea was I wanted a broad-based government, all political parties together and maybe some hard-liners among the Taliban in Afghanistan and in Pakistan didn’t like to hear this and so they attacked me."

In May 2012 Motasim told the Associated Press he regretted the assassination of Arsala Rahmani, a former Taliban Deputy Minister who served under Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai.[1]

Motasim blamed the breakdown of recent negotiations with the Taliban on the USA's apparent unwillingness or inability to honor assurances that it would release Taliban captives.[1]

Motasim was followed by rumors of financial corruption, both as Finance Minister, while on the Quetta Shura—rumors that triggered his ouster in 2009.[2][3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Kathy Gannon (2012-05-18). "Moderate Taliban member speaks of rifts within movement". The Daily Star. Retrieved 2012-05-20. One of the most powerful men on the Taliban council, Agha Jan Motasim, nearly lost his life in a hail of bullets for advocating a negotiated settlement that would bring a broad-based government to his beleaguered homeland of Afghanistan.
  2. 1 2 3 Sam Yousafzai, Ron Moreau (2012-04-25). "Afghanistan: A Moderate Defies the Taliban". Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 2012-05-20. Retrieved 2012-05-20. Not so long ago, Agha Jan Motasim was one of the most important men in the Afghan Taliban. That was before he was sacked as head of the ruling Quetta Shura’s political committee—and before the day last August when someone pumped him full of bullets and left him for dead on a street in Karachi.
  3. 1 2 "Afghan biographies: Jan, Motasim Agha". Afghan biographies. 2012-05-16. Archived from the original on 2015-10-17. Retrieved 2012-05-20.
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