Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani, a senior Taliban member in charge of Kabul security, has echoed the group’s statements that “all Afghans” should feel safe under their Islamic Emirate, and that a “general amnesty” had been granted across the country’s 34 districts.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Sunday, Haqqani, whose colleagues are also playing a key role in restoring security in the capital, said the Taliban is working to bring order and safety to a country that has been at war for more than four decades.

“If we can defeat superpowers, surely we can provide safety to the Afghan people,” Haqqani, who is also a veteran of the Afghan-Soviet war, said.

Many Afghans are sceptical that a leader of the Haqqani Network, known as the Taliban’s most brutal and violent group, will bring security to Afghanistan after 40 years of war and violence, particularly as reports of house-to-house searches and violence allegedly committed by the Taliban continue to pour in, including in Kabul.

The United States still considers Haqqani a “global terrorist,” and the US Treasury Department announced a $5 million bounty for him in February 2011. He is also on the United Nations terrorist list.

Thousands of civilians are still trying to get into Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, where Taliban, intelligence forces, and US soldiers are aggressively trying to deter crowds wanting to exit the country from entering the premises.

There have been near-daily tales of violence, injuries, stampedes, and deaths since the crowds initially gathered outside the airport last Sunday.

Yet, Haqqani insisted that people should not be afraid of the Taliban.

“Our hostility was with the occupation. There was a superpower that came from the outside to divide us. They forced a war unto us. We have no hostility with anyone, we are all Afghans,” he said.

Haqqani’s use of the term “forced” war harkens back to a term used frequently by previous President Ashraf Ghani’s government. The Afghan War was regularly referred to as a “imposed war” by that government.

Both sides, however, disagree on who they believe is to blame for the conflict in Afghanistan. The US and its coalition of 40 nations facilitated the Taliban and other armed groups for the Taliban and Haqqani, whereas Ghani and his administration frequently blamed Pakistan for the violence and discord in their country by facilitating the Taliban and other armed groups – which Islamabad denies.

Now that foreign soldiers are less than ten days away from leaving Afghanistan, Haqqani and the Taliban claim that there is no enemy on the ground and that they want to work with as many people as possible to restore stability.

Since conquering Kabul last Sunday, Taliban commanders have tried to project a more moderate image, and talks on creating a government have begun.

Recent meetings with former President Karzai, as well as Abdullah Abdullah, a member of the resistance against the Taliban’s initial rule in the 1990s, and Gul Agha Sherzai, the former minister of borders and tribal affairs, show that the group is willing to embrace all Afghans, according to Haqqani.

“Karzai was in conflict with us for 13 years, but in the end, we assured even him of his safety,” Haqqani said in reference to the years Karzai spent as the head of the Western-backed Afghan government, which the Taliban often referred to as a “puppet” or “stooge” administration.

On Sunday, the Taliban gave Karzai and Abdullah permission to negotiate with Ahmad Massoud, the son of killed Tajik Mujahideen chief Ahmad Shah Massoud, which is another hint that the group is eager to put old feuds behind them.

The elder Massoud led the only violent resistance against the Taliban’s severe five-year rule in the 1990s. There is concern that if the younger Massoud’s organisation, dubbed “Resistance 2.0” online, fails to negotiate an agreement with the Taliban, Afghanistan would be pushed back into another civil war.

To bolster his case that the Taliban is following through on its pledges of amnesty, Haqqani told Al Jazeera about his final conversations with Hamdullah Mohib, Ghani’s former national security adviser.

“I was talking to Mohib, I told him not to leave, that he and President Ghani would be safe. I said ‘We will assure your security,’” Haqqani said of the British national who reportedly fled with the former president.

Ghani said on Facebook that he fled to avert bloodshed and to save his life, alleging that his security warned him of a serious threat to assassinate him if he stayed in the country.

Haqqani denies this claim.

“All of those people who left this country, we will assure them of their safety. You’re all welcome back in Afghanistan,” he said.

However, the statements of Haqqani and Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid are insufficient to convince millions of Afghans to return to the streets of Kabul. Throughout the capital, massive supermarkets remain shuttered, retailers see little foot traffic, and popular restaurants, cafes, and shisha bars struggle to stay afloat with a fraction of their prior client base.

According to Patricia Gossman, assistant Asia director for Human Rights Watch, references to security and order can too frequently pave the path for a police state.

“Law and order is not the same as rule of law. What we need to see is whether they will address concerns about searches of journalists’ and activists’ homes, and accountability for killings of former government personnel and media workers,” Gossman told Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, Haqqani stated that the Taliban is attempting to deter other Afghans from escaping, but the dissemination of what he claims are unfounded allegations of abuse and violence is complicating matters.

He says “the whole world” is trying to “deceive” the people of Afghanistan with claims that the Taliban will eventually revert to the strict, brutal rule of the 1990s, which he vehemently denies.

This, he said, is why people are going to the airport, “where they are treated disgracefully”.

He says the educated people who are fleeing should work to serve their country rather than going to the airport, where they will face violence, humiliation and “disgrace”.

“We cannot build Afghanistan from the outside,” he said to those who are either waiting to leave or have already left.

He also referred to the last 20 years of foreign intervention that saw foreigners and Afghans coming from abroad to work in the country.

“Outsiders can’t build the nation for us. All they’ve done is destroy it.”

IMAGE CREDIT: MARCUS YAM / LOS ANGELES TIMES VIA GETTY