The new government of the insurgent regime it will have no women and will be made up entirely of Taliban. Mullah Hassan Akhund will be the president and Mule Abdul Ghani Baradar, who in the last three years led the negotiations in Doha, will be his right hand and head of the cabinet of ministers. Among the names revealed this Tuesday by the main spokesman for the fighters, is one of the most wanted men by the FBI.
New cabinet
The main spokesman for the Taliban regime, Zabihullah Mujahid, announced the composition of the new Afghan cabinet. Leading the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the name by which the insurgents baptized the Central Asian country after taking Kabul last month, will be Mohammed Hassan Akhund, born in the Afghan province of Kandahar. The new prime minister was a close collaborator and political advisor to the founder of the Taliban movement, Mullah Omar.
Despite belonging to the leadership of the Taliban movement for 20 years and having been a member of the insurgents’ cabinet in his first government, Akhund is not as well known as the rest of the appointed ministers. Although for the UN Security Council, the new president is on the list of sanctioned for “Taliban acts and activities” and is considered one of the “most effective Taliban commanders”.
Founders
The number two of the new Taliban government will be Abdul Ghani Baradar, 53, one of the figures best known for his role in the negotiations with the United States, which lobbied for the Taliban leader to be released in 2018. In 2001, after the US invasion and the NATO countries and the fall of the first Taliban regime, Baradar was part of a group of insurgents who was willing to recognize the new government in Kabul. The United States rejected the initiative and the intervention in Afghanistan lasted for twenty years until last August 30. Another of the leaders who participated in the dialogue in Qatar, Amir Khan Muttaqi, will also join the new cabinet. Muttaqi will be the new foreign minister.
Heirs
Meanwhile, a second generation of Taliban, sons of renowned radical Islamist leaders, will also make up the cabinet that was announced on Tuesday. One of them, Sirajuddin Haqqani, 48, son of Jalaludin Haqqani, founder of the Haqqan networki, will be in charge of the Interior portfolio. The Haqqani network is a guerrilla faction of the Taliban, linked to Al Qaeda. For the United States it is a terrorist organization, and assures that it is one of the most dangerous factions that the Afghan troops faced and therefore, the new interior minister is one of the most wanted men by the FBI.
While el mullah Yaqub, son of mullah Omar, whom the US presumed dead in 2013, will be in charge of the Ministry of Defense. Yaqub headed the Taliban military commission that defined the insurgents’ strategy against the Afghan government. The lineage of the new defense minister, whose father is revered as head of the Taliban, makes him a unifying figure among the combatants.
After the announcement of the formation of the cabinet, the Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, appointed Deputy Minister of Information and Culture, clarified that “the government is not complete.” The new government in which 30 of the 33 officials are of Pashtun origin, the ethnic group to which most of the Taliban belong, did not turn out to be inclusive as the insurgents promised three weeks ago.
Protests in Kabul
Protests continue in the Central Asian country, most recently several people injured when the Taliban opened fire on protesters to disperse the crowd that took to the streets to reject a security meeting between Pakistan and the insurgents. “First the Taliban. they opened fire in the air and then started shooting at the protesters, several were injured, “said one protester.
Fawzia Wahdat, one of the organizers of the protests in Kabul, said that hundreds of women were temporarily detained. “The women, who were detained by the Taliban, have been released and the Taliban have told us that they were taken to safety and had not been arrested,” said Wahdat, who also assured that “a large number of our brothers and sisters were beaten“in the protests. “Despite the violence, shootings and beatings, we have been able to complete our protests and have taught the world that we are not the dumb people of twenty years ago.”, he stressed.
The Afghan signal Tolo News reported in a statement that one of its cameramen, Wahid Ahmadi, was beaten by the Taliban while covering the protests and then detained for hours until he was released.
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