The Taliban, the new rulers of Afghanistan, praised its suicide bombers who died during the war in the last twenty years, fighting against the former government and its Western allies, and has offered their families and relatives sums of cash and promise of land.  

Taliban’s Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, who has a $10 million US bounty on his head as a "specially designated global terrorist", assembled the families of suicide bombers at a ceremony at Kabul’s famous Intercontinental Hotel, the site once targeted by one of their suicide bombers in 2018. 

Haqqani met the families of what the group calls 'martyrs in jihad'.  "In his speech, the minister (Haqqani) praised the Jihad and sacrifices of the martyrs and Mujahidin and called them heroes of Islam and the country," said a statement released by the Ministry of Interior on Twitter.

The photos of the event were also released with the blurred face of Haqqani. 

Qari Sayeed Khosti, the spokesperson of the ministry, said the families were given $111 and promised plots.  

The event invoked sharp responses from Afghans, with people asking about compensating to those innocent people who were also killed in the bombings by these suicide bombers the group call "martyrs". Others questioned the timing of the event. 

Over two months have passed since the Taliban captured power, the group is nowhere close to getting recognition for their regime. An event like this, hailing the suicide bombers and rewarding their relatives, isn’t going to help the Taliban’s quest of getting themselves accepted by the international community, experts said. 

“Pleasing their supporters is a top priority; reconciliation is not, international recognition is not,” Laurel Miller, the director of the Asia program in Crisis Group, said on Twitter, calling the event a “very blunt and public” indicator of the group’s priorities. 

(SAM)