Kabul: The Taliban announced the formation of their new government with a list of some of their ‘illustrious names’ all-male members of the old guard of the hardline extremist group.
Appointed to the key post of interior minister was Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list with a $5 million bounty on his head and is believed to still be holding at least one American hostage. He headed the feared Haqqani network that is blamed for many deadly attacks and kidnappings.
Mullah Hasan Akhund, who headed the Taliban government in Kabul during the last years of its rule in the last 1990s, has been appointed as the ‘acting’ head of the government.
During a press conference the Taliban’s chief spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid informed the new Afghanistan government will only be ‘acting’.
Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who had led talks with the United States and signed the deal that led to America’s final withdrawal from Afghanistan, will be one of two deputies to Akhund.
The second deputy will be Maulvi Hannafi, the Acting Minister of Defense will be Mullah Yaqoub and the Acting Minister of Interior will be Serajuddin Haqqani.
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