ISI favourites make it to Taliban govt, Hasan Akhund acting PM
Sandeep Dikshit
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 7
The Taliban on Tuesday announced a new government headed by Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund, comprising no woman and almost all members drawn from the insurgent group itself.
Faced with fast-paced developments, Indian and Russian NSAs will hold extensive talks on Wednesday in this respect. Russian NSA Nikolay Patrushev will also call on PM Narendra Modi and Foreign Minister
S Jaishankar.
The visit is a follow-up to PM Modi’s telephonic talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin during which they had agreed to set up a permanent communication channel on Afghan developments, said an MEA release.
In Kabul, Mullah Baradar and Abdul Salam Hanafi will be the two deputies of Mullah Hasan, but of greater interest was the naming of ISI favourites Sirajuddin Haqqani, a designated global terrorist, and Mullah Yaqoob as the next Interior and Defence Ministers in a Cabinet of over two dozen men.
Though dominated by the old guard, basically members from the Quetta Shura and the Haqqani network, the Taliban appointed a Tajik, Qari Fasihuddin, the architect of victories in northern Afghanistan, including Panjshir valley, as the army chief. Only six countries—Russia, China, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Qatar—have been invited so far to attend the inaugural ceremony.
Significantly, the Taliban have removed the Ministry of Women’s Affairs from the Cabinet on a day women-led demonstrations were held in four Afghan cities, including Kabul, a day after Panjshir resistance leader Ahmad Massoud, who has gone underground, gave a call for national resistance.
Days after the ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hamid’s visit, it began with a small demonstration by women in front of the Pakistani embassy. Minutes later, they were joined by hundreds of residents till aerial gunfire and a cane-charge by masked Taliban men dispersed them.
Protests were also reported from the adjacent Shia Hazara-dominated provinces of Bamyan and Daikundi, besides Balkh, dominated by Tajiks and Hazaras. “Pakistan, Pakistan, Leave Afghanistan,” read a placard held aloft in Kabul.
Cities dominated by non-Pashtuns have been on the edge ever since the Taliban bludgeoned its way into Panjshir valley to subdue Tajik Afghans amidst allegations of assistance from a Pakistani drone strike that killed two charismatic resistance leaders, including former journalist Fahim Dashti and some members of Ahmad Massoud’s family.
Reports suggested that the ISI chief’s visit had led to reshuffle in the proposed Taliban Cabinet. Kabul was preparing for a change in government as old slogans and wall paintings were being whitewashed while journalists shared images of a university classroom where a curtain separated men and women students.
PM-designate from mujahideen stock
- Like most Taliban Rehbar Shura members, PM-designate Mullah Hasan Akhund is well known in security and intelligence circles
- UN-designated terrorist, details of his life are flimsy
- A Haji, he was Foreign Minister in first Taliban govt but was replaced by Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil and named political adviser to the late Taliban supremo Mullah Mohammed Omar
- Believed to be between 66 and 69 years, Akhund is from Panjwai province in Kandahar
- Won his spurs as a fighter with the Maulvi Khaalis group
- Group was one among 7 factions of jihad funded and trained by CIA, ISI and the Saudi intelligence to fight Soviets
Old guard at helm, no woman inducted
Abdul Ghani Baradar
Deputy PM Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar led talks with the US and signed the deal that led to America’s final withdrawal from Afghanistan
Mullah Hanafi
The second deputy to Akhund, Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi is an ethnic Uzbek from the stronghold of erstwhile warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum. Was a Deputy Minister in first Taliban government
$5 mn bounty on Interior Minister
Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani carries a $5 million bounty by the US which wants to question him for the 2008 Serena Hotel attack in Kabul that killed six, as well as several cross-border attacks against the US and coalition forces in Afghanistan.
