In Afghanistan, a new caretaker government was announced by the Taliban on September 7, 2021.
- Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund has been appointed as the ‘acting’ Prime Minister in the new Afghan government. Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund is presently head of the Taliban’s powerful decision-making body—Rehbari Shura or leadership council.
- Mullah Hasan belongs to Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, and was among the founders of the armed movement
- Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and Mullah Abdus Salam have been appointed Deputy Prime Ministers.
- Sirajuddin Haqqani has been appointed as the acting interior minister. He is head of the militant group known as the Haqqani network, who are affiliated with the Taliban and have been behind some of the deadliest attacks in the country’s two-decade-long war.
- Mulla Yaqoob, son of the Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, is the new defence minister.
- Unlike the wider Taliban, the Haqqani network has been designated a foreign terrorist organisation by the US. It also maintains close ties to al-Qaeda.
- This is all-male cabinet consisting entirely of Taliban leaders or their associates.
