Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, a high-ranking leader of Afghanistan’s Taliban, sent a letter to head of the ISIL, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, voicing the Afghan Taliban’s opposition to formation of any parallel group in the country.
“I notify you that nobody should do any activity in Afghanistan under the name of Daesh, so that no line other than the Islamic Emirate would be established in this country (Afghanistan),” Mansour said, using the Arabic acronym for the ISIL.
With a long history of presence in Afghanistan, the Taliban has enough experience of how to press on and expand its activities in the country, the letter added.
The Taliban has already called on the ISIL to “avoid extremism” in their militancy in the Middle East, a plea that Baghdadi mocked. He reportedly called Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar Mujahid “a fool and illiterate warlord” undeserving of a religious title.