Acceptance: Weeks after capturing Kabul, the Taliban have announced an interim government in Afghanistan under the leadership of Mullah Hassan Akhund. The caretaker cabinet paid tribute to the group’s old guard, giving top positions to Taliban figures who were said to be the key faces behind a 20-year war against the US-led coalition and its Afghan government allies.
Interim Prime Minister Mullah Hassan Akhund led the Taliban government in Kabul during the last years of his rule.
Read also | Taliban announces Mullah Hassan Akhund as leader of ‘acting’ government, Abdul Ghani Baradar is deputy
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who led negotiations with the United States and signed the agreement that led to the eventual withdrawal of the US from Afghanistan, will be one of Akhund’s two deputy.
Akhund’s appointment as the head of the Taliban government came days after the head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen Faiz Hameed visited the war-torn nation, as the Taliban were preparing their plans for government formation.
The ISI chief, who became the only high-ranking foreign official to visit Kabul since the Taliban captured the Afghan capital in mid-August, met Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Afghanistan, according to reports.
Who is Mulla Hassan Akhund?
Mulla Akhund served as the head of the Rahbari Shura for 20 years and earned himself a very good reputation. “He is a religious leader rather than a military background and is known for his character and devotion,” says Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada.
Hailing from Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, Akhund is currently the head of the Taliban’s ‘Rahbari Shura’, known as the ‘Quetta Shura’ or Leadership Council, which is based in Quetta, Pakistan.
However, all the power of this leadership council rests with the Taliban chief.
Among the group’s many founders, Akhund studied in various madrassas in Pakistan.
Akhund, considered one of the Taliban’s most ineffective and unreasonable leaders, was never given a key position other than a stop-gap arrangement for a brief period in the Taliban’s last regime.
Listed as a terrorist by the United Nations, Akhund oversaw the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in March 2001.
According to earlier reports, there were many differences in the insurgent group over government formation.
The first was between the leaders of the Doha political party led by Mullah Baradar, and the Taliban’s military chief Mullah Yacoub, between Baradar, who headed the proposed government.
According to a report, Yakub said that people living in luxury in Doha could not set the conditions for those involved in jihad against the United States and the then Afghan government.
The remarks were an apparent reference to Mullah Baradar, Sher Mohammad Stanakzai and others, who held the Taliban’s political office in Doha.
Earlier on Friday, it was reported that Mullah Baradar was injured during an encounter with Anas Haqqani, brother of Sirajuddin Haqqani, who serves as the deputy leader of the Taliban and currently commands the Haqqani network.
Haqqani and some other Taliban members were against Baradar’s appointment as chief and apparently one of the main reasons for the ISI chief’s sudden visit to Kabul. The ISI chief is said to have mediated the new power-sharing deal after internal disputes between different factions.
According to reports, Mullah Yakub will be the defense minister, while Sirajuddin Haqqani, the face of the Haqqani network, has been proposed as the federal interior minister.
Mullah Amir Khan Muttaki has reportedly been named as the new foreign minister. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid will be the spokesman for the head of state. Earlier it was reported that Mujahid would be the new information minister.
.