{"id":26525,"date":"2023-11-20T14:03:05","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T14:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/germany-blasts-taliban-officials-appearance-at-cologne-mosque\/"},"modified":"2023-11-20T14:03:05","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T14:03:05","slug":"germany-blasts-taliban-officials-appearance-at-cologne-mosque","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/germany-blasts-taliban-officials-appearance-at-cologne-mosque\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany blasts Taliban official\u2019s appearance at Cologne mosque"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Germany on Monday condemned an appearance by a Taliban official at a mosque in Cologne, with the interior minister demanding explanations from the Turkish organisation running the site.<\/p>\n
Abdul Bari Omar, who is an official with the Taliban-run health authority in Afghanistan, attended the mosque to speak at a conference organised by an Afghan association in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe appearance of a representative of the Taliban in Cologne is completely unacceptable and must be strongly condemned.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo-one should offer radicals a platform in Germany,\u201d said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.<\/p>\n
She urged Ditib, the Turkish-Islamic association managing the mosque in the city\u2019s Chorweiler district to explain \u201chow it could have been possible that the room was used\u201d in this manner.<\/p>\n
Ditib\u2019s management said it had no prior knowledge of the Taliban official\u2019s planned appearance.<\/p>\n
\u201cContrary to the original contract, it was transformed into a political event and a speaker who was not known to us had been invited,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
Ditib rejected \u201cany proximity \u2014 even spiritual \u2014 to the Taliban\u201d.<\/p>\n
The foreign ministry said the Taliban official had not been issued with a visa to enter Germany.<\/p>\n
He had apparently been able to travel to the country using a Schengen visa issued by a \u201cneighbouring country\u201d, it added.<\/p>\n
Local media said Omar had arrived from the Netherlands, where he had participated in a World Health Organisation conference in early November.<\/p>\n