Taliban share rare, months-old audio from reclusive leader

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban’s supreme leader says Afghanistan will be “ruined” without justice, in a rare audio message shared on social media. Hibatullah Akhundzada, an Islamic scholar, almost never appears in public and hardly ever leaves the Taliban heartland in southern Kandahar province. The main Taliban spokesman on Wednesday shared an audio recording with what he says is Akhundzada’s voice. In it, the leader says justice is an instrument for the Taliban government’s survival and without it, Afghanistan would be “ruined.” The spokesman said the message was part of a speech to given to Taliban government and legal officials “five or six months” ago. The AP couldn’t independently verify that the voice on the audio message is Akhundzada’s.