Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid at a conference Tuesday on the new government chain of command in Afghanistan.
Photo: AAMIR QURESHI / AFP / Getty Images
The Taliban Sirajuddin Haqqani, on the list of the most wanted of the United States Federal Bureau (FBI), was appointed, this Tuesday, by the new regime in Afghanistan as Minister of the Interior.
The terrorist is one of the most wanted by the US for his involvement in suicide attacks and his ties to al-Qaeda.
The State Department offered a recompensation of up to $ 10 million for information leading to his arrest.
Sirajuddin Haqqani is the son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, the founder of the Haqqani network, marked as a terrorist organization by the US.
Although the US initially partnered with this militia to drive out the Soviets in the 1980s, the semi-autonomous group was later singled out as the perpetrator of deadly attacks against coalition forces.
Interestingly, the Haqqani network has been officially named a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the US, and the Taliban have not.
The group operates, according to the United Nations Sanctions Committee, in areas of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Terrorists are involved in the production and trafficking of drugs, the Alarabiya News report indicates.
Yesterday, the Taliban announced the formation of the new interim government in the Central Asian country after 20 years of US occupation, and a week after the total withdrawal of military troops from that country and the others that made up the coalition after an eventful evacuation process.
Neither women nor members of the past government in the organization chart
Although spokespersons for the group indicated that they would show greater tolerance and inclusiveness, the new organization does not include women or members of the past administration of former President Ashraf Ghani.
The extremists appointed Mohammad Hassan Akhund, a close associate of one of the group’s founders, Mohammad Omar, as prime minister and Abdul Ghani Baradar, one of the organization’s co-founders, as his deputy. Mohammed Yaqoob, Omar’s son, was appointed the acting defense minister.
Four of the designated officials were detained at Guantánamo
Four other men assigned to senior positions in the new government had previously been detained at Guantanamo Base and were released as part of an agreement to hand over US soldier Robert Bowdrie Bergdahl, in 2014, who was a five-year prisoner of the Taliban.
The group appointed Noorullah Noori as minister of borders and tribal affairs; Abdul Haq Wasiq as Director of Intelligence; Khairullah Khair as Minister of Information and Culture, and Mohammad Fazil Mazloom as Deputy Defense Minister.
The CNN chain outlined that the Taliban have before them a complicated scenario after regain power in mid-August last.
The US and other nations have frozen funds to the country as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), so the economic situation is expected to worsen. International leaders and moneylenders are waiting to see how the organization will treat the opposition, women and religious and ethical minorities to determine to what extent they will collaborate with the new regime.
The announcement of the new line of command comes a day after the organization claimed control of the last province in resistance, Panjshir, and amid street protests involving women demanding equal rights under the Taliban mandate. .
The demonstrations were broken up by militants of the group, and some reports suggest that some of the participants were attacked and detained.
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