Kabul: Anas Haqqani, the Taliban’s leader, on Tuesday visited the tomb of Mahmud Ghaznavi, who attacked the Somnath temple in Gujarat multiple times in the 17th century and lauded him as a “great Muslim fighter.”
“Today, we visited the shrine of Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi, a renowned Muslim warrior & Mujahid of the 10th century. Ghaznavi (May the mercy of Allah be upon him) established a strong Muslim rule in the region from Ghazni & smashed the idol of Somnath, tweeted Haqqani.
From 998 until 1030, Mahmud Ghaznavi was the first independent king of the Turkic dynasty of the Ghaznavids.
Ghaznavi is believed to have attacked and looted the wealthiest cities and temple towns in mediaeval India, such as Mathura and Somnath, seventeen times.
Mahmud Ghaznavi is said to have attacked the Somnath temple 17 times before eventually ransacking it in 1024 AD.
Lord Shiva is the temple’s main deity.
Ghaznavi targeted Hindu temples primarily because they were the Hindus’ wealth, economics, and ideological centres.
Anas Haqqani was a member of the Taliban’s negotiation team in its political office in Doha.
The Haqqani Network and the Taliban came closer during the 1990s, and this time too, the dreaded terror group is part of the government led by Taliban. In fact, Sirajuddin Haqqani – a global terrorist – heads Afghanistan’s interior ministry.