Afghanistan: Taliban appoint its members to key roles including provincial governors

The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan on Sunday, 7 November unveiled the names of the new provincial governors, deputy governors and military commanders. As per The Express Tribune report, Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid in a statement said that Qari Baryal is appointed as Kabul governor, Mufti Mohammad Idrees will be serving as his deputy and Wali Jan Hamza will be the commander of Afghanistan’s capital. 

Earlier on Tuesday, the Taliban appointed governors and military commanders to crucial positions at the provincial level on the directives of the group’s supreme leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada. The interim government of Afghanistan headed by Haibatullah Akhunzada, who is also the supreme leader of the Taliban, has appointed Abdul Ghani as the governor of Kunduz province. As per the report, Qari Bakhtiar and Haji mali Khan are appointed as the governor of Baghlan and Logar provinces respectively.

In other positions announced by the government, Abdullah Mukhtar will serve as governor of Paktika province, Abdullah Sarhadi of Bamyan, Haji Dawat of Uruzgan, Rouhani Sahib of Farah, Abdul Rehman Sar-e-Pol and Shoaib of Jowzjan. Ishaq Akhunzada has been appointed as Ghazni province’s governor. The key positions in the government were announced just days after the Taliban’s supreme leader warned against the potential threat of turncoats and infiltrators, as per the report. 

Akhundzada issued a warning against infiltrators 

Indicating the seriousness of the threat, Akhundzada even issued a rare written public statement to reportedly call on the outfit’s commanders to purge their tanks. In the warning, he said, “All those elders of their groups must look inside their ranks and see if there is any unknown entity working against the will of the government, which must be eradicated as soon as possible".

"Whatever wrong happens, the elder will be responsible for the consequences of the actions in this world and in the afterlife,” he added, according to the statement tweeted by multiple members of the Taliban. 

Meanwhile, months after the Taliban reconquered Afghanistan and formed the interim government, the extremist group has now claimed that it has implemented all the conditions for recognition by the international community. This comes after the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson recently said that the Taliban must fulfil the expectations of the international community for recognition of the newly-formed government in the war-torn country. The Taliban's Acting Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi restated the group's call for world leaders to engage with the present government in Afghanistan. 

(IMAGE: AP)