Three reliable sources told Afghanistan International that they met Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, the Taliban's deputy foreign minister, in the city of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE). He was supposed to be arrested and hence, left Kabul.
Other sources had previously said that Stanekzai was supposed to be tried in a military court.
According to sources, the purpose of the trial was to send a warning message to other officials who are dissatisfied with Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada's decrees, especially regarding the ban on women's education.
Many Kabul-based Taliban officials oppose dozens of Kandahar decrees.
According to information provided by these sources to Afghanistan International, Mullah Baradar, Sirajuddin Haqqani, and Mawlawi Yaqoob asked Hibatullah Akhundzada to pardon Stanekzai, but the Taliban leader strongly opposed this request and insisted that he should be imprisoned.
However, after extensive consultations and indirect interventions by some senior Taliban officials, Stanekzai finally boarded the plane and left Afghanistan for the United Arab Emirates for the time being, the sources said.
However, he and his supporters within the Taliban government are trying to pave the way for a return and reconciliation, sources say.
In an audio file provided to Afghanistan International on Monday, the Taliban's deputy foreign minister said that he had been "infected with a coronavirus-like disease" and that was why he had "gone to recuperate".
In the audio file, he did not mention that he left Afghanistan and went to Dubai for fear of arrest, but accused the media of spreading "false propaganda" in this regard.
Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai is one of the few officials in the Taliban government who openly criticised Hibatullah Akhundzada's policies. He had repeatedly taken a position on the Taliban's severe restrictions on Afghan women and girls.
In his last speech, he accused the Taliban of violating all women's rights and said that the group has committed oppression and injustice against 20 million women and girls in Afghanistan.
Stanekzai's departure comes as tensions and internal disagreements within the Taliban leadership over key issues, including women's education, have risen to an unprecedented level.
Some political analysts believe that these differences may lead to deeper fissures in the Taliban's structure, especially as some of the group's leaders try to adopt a more moderate approach to international pressure. However, it is said that the hardline faction led by Hibatullah Akhundzada is not ready to back down.
