A video surfaced in social media showing the Taliban’s deputy leader Mullah Baradar meeting injured insurgents in a hospital in Pakistan, though the place of the meeting wasn’t revealed by the Taliban.

For years Pakistan has been denying the presence of the group’s leadership in the country. A delegation of the Taliban’s political commission, led by the Mullah Baradar, has been in Pakistan to consult Pakistan’s leadership and the group’s own leadership about the Afghan peace process.

In the viral video, Mullah Baradar can be heard saying to the injured fighters, “Though everything was passed by us (in Doha), we are compelled to come here because there are not a few (of our) people here, our entire leadership is present here in this place (Pakistan),” according to the transcript of the video available in TOLOnews.

When we conduct partial and general negotiations there in Doha, we share the whole process and consult with leadership and the Ulema council of our group here in Pakistan, TOLOnews quoted him saying.

Importantly, Baradar also said that all decisions regarding the peace process are being finalized in consultation with the Taliban’s cleric council and leadership in Pakistan.

Baradar’s video of visiting injured soldiers of the Taliban drew angry reactions from people back home in Afghanistan. Some Afghan leaders bashed Pakistan for sheltering the Taliban for years and lying to the world for so many years. Others called the visit a morale booster for the Taliban’s footsoldiers to keep up fightings in Afghanistan. 

The Afghan government and the Taliban took a 23-day- break from the intra-Afghan negotiation from 14 December. The sides are expected to resume their talks on 5 January next year. Just before the break on 14 December, the warring Afghan sides finalized an agreement for a procedural framework and exchanged drafts containing proposed agendas for further talks.