The latest: As per a new decree issued under the name of Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of the Taliban, a number of new provincial governors and commanders of the group’s military corps have been appointed.
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- The decree had been released on Thursday said that the changes aim to improve the work of the departments.
- According to Taliban leader Ahmad Taha has been appointed as the deputy minister of the Borders and Tribal Affairs who had been the former governor of Kunar province; former Panjshir governor Mohammad Mohsen Hashemi has been appointed as the Director General of the Supreme Audit Authority.
- The Taliban leader has also appointed Rahmatullah Mohammad as the commander of the 209 Al-Fath Corps; Nasrullah Moote as the commander of the 207 Al-Farooq Corps, and Mohammad Ismail Rasekh as the commander of the 203 Mansoori Corps.
- The Taliban spokesperson said that Mullah Shirin has been appointed as acting governor of Kandahar province, while Qari Mohammad Ayub will take charge as governor of Kunar; Bashir Ahmad Haqqani will be the new governor of Nuristan; Gul Haidar Shafiq has been appointed as governor of Jawzjan and Abdul Rahman Haqqani as governor of Baghlan provinces.
- Before being appointed as Taliban acting governor of Kandahar, Mullah Shirin, was the deputy minister of defence for Intelligence affairs; Qari Mohammad Ayub was the commander of the 207 Al-Farooq Corps; Bashir Ahmad Haqqani was the deputy governor of the Taliban for Wardak province; Gul Haidar Shafiq was the deputy governor of the Taliban for Ghazni, and Abdul Rahman Haqqani was the deputy minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs of the Taliban.
- From time to time, the leader of the Taliban rotates the group’s officials in the provinces, ministries and military corps.
- Samiullah Hezbollah, has been appointed as the Kandahar Police Chief of the Taliban.
Meanwhile take note that Mohammad Ali Hanafi, also known as Mullah Shirin, who is the new governor of Kandahar enjoys close relations with the Taliban leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada. He also had close ties with Taliban’s first leader Mullah Omar.
- Before Shirin, Yusoof Wafa had been the Taliban’s governor in Kandahar.
- He said that along with several other senior Taliban officials, Sirajuddin Haqqani the group’s interior minister will also participate in the ceremony which is to be held for the introduction of the new Taliban governor.
Zoom out: The last major change in appointments had been on March 22 when the Taliban administration’s former acting finance minister, Mullah Hidayatullah Badri, had been appointed as governor of Afghanistan’s central bank.
- Badri, who acted as the Taliban’s finance minister and oversaw budgets after they regained power in 2021, had already taken up his new role then.
- Before that on October 6, 2022, Taliban had named Mohammad Nabi Omari, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who is also a senior leader in the Haqqani Network and maintains close ties to Al Qaeda, to serve as its “first deputy” to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Minister of the Interior.
- Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid announced Omari’s appointment on October 6, 2022 along with the shuffling of other appointments, including provincial governors and other key Taliban leadership positions.
