Tag : Taliban

Manish Rai*   The Taliban now has firm control over Afghanistan. At this point in time, the Taliban have no opponents capable of undermining their positions in terms of military, political, or even economic resources. Also, there have been no meaningful changes in the radical ideology of the Taliban. It is still a militant group ruling over a UN member state. During the 2021 summer offensive, the Taliban demonstrated their ability to function as a cohesive military-political entity. There was no doubt that the movement was commanded by a single command and control center. With highly disciplined units that obeyed the instructions of the centralized leadership. At that time every faction within the Taliban has the common goal that was to take full control of the whole country. But that’s not the case now as two main groups, the first one led by Sirajuddin Haqqani, Interior minister in the Taliban interim government. And the other one led by Mullah Yakoob, Defence Minister is at loggerheads with each other.   Sirajuddin Haqqani is the son of a famed commander from the anti-Soviet jihad and the founder of the Haqqani network Jalaluddin Haqqani. Is currently the deputy leader of the Taliban and head of the powerful Haqqani network. The Haqqani network is a US-designated terror group long viewed as one of the most dangerous armed group in Afghanistan. The group is infamous for its use of suicide bombers and is believed to have orchestrated some of the most high-profile attacks in Kabul over the years. Capital Kabul is under the firm control of over 6,000 cadres of the Haqqani network supervised by Anas Haqqani, brother of Sirajuddin Haqqani. The network is considered very close to the Pakistan intelligence service ISI.   Mulla Yakoob  ...