Stop interfering in Afghanistan affairs: Taliban chief to world

KABUL: The Taliban's reclusive supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada called Friday for the world to stop telling them how to run Afghanistan, insisting sharia law was the only model for a successful Islamic state.

Akhundzada, who hasn't been photographed in public since the Taliban returned to power in August, was addressing a major gathering of religious scholars in the Afghan capital called to rubber-stamp the hardline Islamist group's rule. Over 3,000 clerics have gathered since Thursday for the three-day men-only meeting. "Why is the world interfering in our affairs?" he asked in an hour-long speech broadcast by state radio. "They say 'why don't you do this, why don't you do that?' Akhundzada called the Taliban takeover a "win for the Muslim world". At least one participant called for girls' high schools to be opened but it was unclear how widespread support it got.