Led by Ahmad Massoud, the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Tajik majority Panjshir valley has declared that it will again prevent the Taliban from entering their province.
Ahmad Shah was assassinated in an al Qaeda attack days before the Osama bin Laden-led terror group carried out the Sept. In its new avatar, the Northern Alliance has also been joined by Amrullah Saleh, Vice President to Ashraf Ghani, who fled from the presidential palace in Kabul as Taliban fighters arrived at the gates of the Afghan capital.
Saleh, also an ethnic Tajik, is said to have gathered around himself what remains of the fighting core of the now defunct Afghan government forces and has sought support for the resistance against the Taliban. Then there are the Shia Hazaras. Being Shia, they have historically faced persecution in Afghanistan, including from the Taliban. In a worrisome sign, Taliban fighters are recently reported to have blown up the statue of a prominent Hazara militia leader, Abdul Ali Mazari, in Bamiyan, which is regarded as being the unofficial capital of the Hazaras.
Mazari was executed by the Taliban in That is because no single ethnic group makes up more than 50 per cent of the Afghan population. While the country has not had a proper census, the Pashtuns are accepted as being the largest group followed by the Tajiks and the Hazaras. A lot of people chose to leave their village and come to Kabul now. They have to go back.
Is there a place to go? A lot of the focus on aid is well-placed in the immediate term. But long term, aid and food and medicine is not what makes up an economy. What kind of international reaction would generate change? How soon will they be willing to change? What changes would be made? I think it will be very hard to take some of these heavy hitters out of the government. One is they can restructure the state, create, like, a higher leadership council, move these people from ministries to higher-level political positions, and turn the cabinet into technical posts that will maybe satisfy some of the Afghans and some of the international community.
I think that would be one way to go. The other alternative is just to use the remaining positions — the government is not a complete government yet — to bring in some other non-Taliban elements.
Even with the government they have now, is there any sense beyond the top leadership, they have people to implement policies or pick up the trash, you know, a real government that can govern? I keep track of two places. One is Herat. All appointments so far have been unqualified Taliban members. The city is divided into districts. All the people in charge of districts are mullahs, meaning the people who had religious training — minimal often — and also were Talibs, meaning they were part of the fighting cadre of the group.
The minister of higher education, as well. He also made a statement saying that modern education is good, but religious education gives you also or maybe even more respect and dignity. Running the finances of an insurgency group is obviously different than dealing with World Bank, IMF, and the system of finances of the world. Does he know monetary policy? I highly doubt that. Does he know how to navigate the international economic structure that exists?
Obviously not. They say he knows his stuff, but yes, his stuff was to basically run the finances of a mafia. Does the interim government tell us anything about that possibility? Taliban have different relationships with different terrorist groups in Afghanistan. The Taliban have different relationships with each of them. Whether they will be able to deliver to the Pakistani government, and crack down on the Pakistani Taliban, is much harder for them to do. With regard to al-Qaeda, every indication we have so far is that they are not going to be very aggressive against al-Qaeda.
The people who were put in power, especially the Haqqani bunch, are known to have a good relationship with al-Qaeda. There were even indications lately that they will not really promise that they will cut ties. It will be very hard for anyone to hold him accountable to that. I think if the world pushes the Taliban toward the path of isolation — complete sanctions, etc. The same week the Taliban announced this government, it also violently broke up a protest in Kabul.
There is a Nobel laureate economist, Albert O. Hirschman, who wrote a book called Loyalty Voice, and Exit. He was basically saying that if someone is unhappy with your organization, they have two choices, they can exit the organization, or they can voice their business or say something or make an attempt to change it. Which one they choose is going to be a function of the loyalty, how invested they are in your organization. I think you can look at Afghanistan in those terms, too.
The refugee exodus is a thing; a lot of people are trying to get out. Some of it is going to be armed resistance. Some of it is there, but they lack leadership, they lack foreign support, they lack even the manpower, because the country is so war-fatigued. So the armed resistance may not have a lot to draw on, but it exists. The other would be to raise your voice to demonstrate. Herat, my hometown, there were demonstrations. I imagine how the Taliban respond to peaceful protest may influence the possibility of a more organized armed resistance.
It took the Taliban a while to create an insurgency, too. It took them until to have a serious insurgency; they were topped in I think one thing people may not pay enough attention to is this idea of performance legitimacy.
Badri is an ethnic Pashtun hailing from the Sangin district of the southern Helmand province, where the Taliban put up a tough fight against the UK and US forces over the past 20 years. The Taliban gained control of many districts in Helmand before formally announcing the country's interim setup on Tuesday. Mullah Mohammad Younus Akhundzada acting minister for rural rehabilitation and development.
Omari remained one of the Taliban's peace negotiators in Doha. Akhundzada, a former head of state carrier Ariana Afghan Airlines during the Taliban's first rule, was born in the village of Sarpolad, in the Char Chiney district of Helmand. He is a Pashtun. Sheikh Mohammad Khalid acting minister for encouragement, instruction to virtue and prevention from vice.
World , Asia - Pacific Who's who in Taliban interim government? In member Afghan caretaker Cabinet, only handful of portfolios given to non-ethnic Pashtuns Shafiq Ahmad The acting head of the ministers, acting ministers, and other administrative positions in the interim Taliban administration are as follows: Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund acting head of ministers Before being appointed the Taliban administration's acting head of ministers or prime minister, Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund was the head of the powerful decision-making body, Rehbari Shura or leadership council, for 20 years.
He also served as Kandahar's governor and vice president of the Council of Ministers until Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar acting deputy of head of ministers Baradar, a founding member of the Taliban movement in the s, now heads the group's Doha political office. Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi acting deputy of head of ministers Hanafi is a senior Taliban leader and a key member of the group's negotiation team in Qatar's political office.
Qari Din Mohammad Hanif acting economy minister A Tajik from the Shakarlab village of the northeastern Badakhshan province, Qari Din Mohammad Hanif is one of the few members of ethnic minority groups to hold a position in the group. Qari Fasihuddin acting chief of army staff A Tajik Taliban commander from Badakhshan, Qari Fasihuddin was a Shura Taliban council member who led the fight and took control of Afghanistan's northern provinces, including Panjshir.
Haji Muhammad Idrees acting governor of Afghan central bank — Da Afghanistan Bank Idrees is from the northern Jawzjan province, where Turkmen and Uzbeks make up the majority of the population. Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob acting defense minister Yaqoob is the son of Mullah Mohammad Omar Akhundzada, the Taliban's founding leader and first supreme leader. Sirajuddin Haqqani acting interior affairs minister Leader of the strong Haqqani Network, Haqqani was involved in operations against the US forces and the Kabul government's security forces in eastern regions, including the provinces of Paktia, Paktika, Khost, and Nangarhar, as well as in and around Kabul.
Amir Khan Muttaqi acting foreign affairs minister Muttaqi is a well-known Taliban commander from Paktia who has lived in Zabul, Kandahar and Helmand provinces. Khairullah Khairkhwa acting minister for information and culture An ethnic Pashtun from Kandahar province, Khairkhwa was a commander during the fight against the US, and the interior minister and governor of Herat province during the Taliban's first rule.
Mawlawi Abdul Hakim Sharie acting minister of justice Sharie, 55, is believed to be a close aide to Akhundzada. Noorullah Noori acting minister for borders and tribal affairs Noori comes from the southern Zabul province, which is dominated by Pashtuns. Mohammad Esa Akhund acting minister for mines and petroleum Esa was the minister for water, sanitation and electricity during the first Taliban regime.
Najibullah Haqqani acting telecommunications minister Haqqani was the Taliban regime's deputy minister for public works before it was overthrown in Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani acting minister for refugees He is a Pashtun from the Zadran tribe, the paternal uncle of Sirajuddin Haqqani, and one of the Haqqani network's leaders. Abdul Haq Wasiq acting chief of general directorate of intelligence Abdul Haq Wasiq was born in the southeastern Ghazni province in Tajmir Jawad acting first deputy of directorate general of intelligence A leader of the Haqqani network, Jawad is an ethnic Pashtun from the eastern Khost province.
Rahmatullah Najib acting deputy of directorate general of intelligence He is a Pashtun from the Ghilzai tribe from the eastern Logar province. Others have joined because they feel marginalized by the government in terms of money or political representation. The Taliban sends cadres to villages to identify and negotiate with tribal chiefs and ethnic leaders susceptible to recruitment, offering power, status, or money, according to Ted Callahan, a western security expert based in Afghanistan.
The militant group also sends preachers and established religious school officials to propagate its message. Callahan said that the Taliban has tried to expand to sympathetic ethnic groups.
The Taliban has also exploited increased hostility on the part of locals towards pro-government militias, including the Afghan Local Police, accusing them of extortion, rape, and extrajudicial killings. The police are supposed to fall under the command of the government, but in reality, their allegiance lies with local warlords who have been accused of a range of rights abuses.
In , the militant group focused its annual spring offensive on northern Afghanistan, seizing territory all over the region. The Taliban claimed its biggest prize in September when it briefly captured the key northern city of Kunduz, the first time it had seized a provincial capital since it was ousted by the U.
Overstretched Afghan forces suffering record casualties and high desertion rates risk being overwhelmed as new war fronts open in the north. If not, Afghanistan may witness the fall of a record number of districts to the Taliban this fighting season.
Shusha was the key to the recent war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Now Baku wants to turn the fabled fortress town into a resort.
0コメント