AN ALLEGED "Taliban sympathiser" who has been renting land in Rhu has reportedly been asked to leave after security concerns were raised.

Waheed Totakhyl has been renting the 75-acre Aldonaig Farm in the hills above the village, overlooking Royal Navy personnel housing on Smugglers Way and the Gareloch, where nuclear submarines and other vessels enter and exit Faslane naval base - which is only two miles away.

A leading member of the Scottish Afghan Society, Mr Totakhyl is said to have a brother currently serving as a military commander with the Taliban in Kabul.

Rhu residents have previously raised concerns over mass gatherings hosted on the land bringing in people from across the central belt and elsewhere since May 2020 and through the lockdowns.

In May this year the Advertiser reported fears over a series of hill fires at the site - although Mr Totakhyl said he had "done nothing illegal".

Mr Totakhyl is believed to have been renting the land from Al and Maryam Taghi, who have been absentee landowners for more than 15 years and are understood to live in Canada.

Following reports in other media outlets this week, Lomond North Councillor George Freeman told the Advertiser: "It appears that Mr Al Taghi has now decided to terminate the lease with Mr Totakhyl.

"It appears that the owner may have seen the latest news reports on this issue and decided that enough is enough.

"Hopefully he now leaves and we do not see a long drawn out battle between him and the owner."

READ MORE: Concern grows over wildfire risk on hills above Rhu

At a meeting of Rhu and Shandon Community last month convener, Jim Duncan, said the events at Aldonaig made for "utterly horrendous reading".

He said: "I was kept up to date with it at the time but seeing it in print at this particular stage, it's just horrific what's been happening up there.

"Things have calmed down a little bit but the fact that the gentleman in question responsible for that area at the moment is allegedly a Taliban sympathiser is just utterly horrendous."

Fiona Baker told the meeting that the situation had become "an absolute saga".

She said: "I did have a long conversation with the family because I was trying to establish a relationship with them, so that we could progress things and talk about things, to resolve all of the noise issues which fortunately this summer have not been constant 12 hours a day, thank goodness.

"They said that when they left Afghanistan 20 years ago, of course when the Taliban were removed from power, they went to Saudi Arabia and then Syria and then they came here. I didn't really think anything of it at the time but that route, if you were moving because you're Taliban, that would probably be the route you'd take.

"Maybe it's the wrong thing to say but it did cross my mind; somebody who, according to news reports, has publicly called for allied or American soldiers to be killed, to be so close to one of the most sensitive military sites in the country, that does cross your mind."

Mr Totakhyl told Sky News that he rented the farm "because I like to be a farmer and enjoy the weather… of Scotland".

He previously said that since the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan is "more safe than Europe".