Afghanistan reportedly ruled by council, but Taliban supreme leader will be in charge

Afghanistan could be ruled by a council now that the Taliban has taken power, while the supreme leader of the militant Islamist movement, Haibatullah Akhundzada, will likely remain in charge., revealed to Reuters a high ranking member of the group.

The Taliban they would also approach former pilots and soldiers of the Afghan armed forces to join their ranksWaheedullah Hashimi, who has access to the group’s decision-making, added in an interview.

It remains to be seen to what extent this recruitment will be crowned with success. Thousands of soldiers have been killed by Taliban insurgents over the past 20 years, and recently the group has targeted Afghan pilots trained in the United States because of their fundamental role.

The power structure described by Hashimi it would have similarities to how Afghanistan was ruled the last time the Taliban was in power between 1996 and 2001. Later, the Supreme Leader, Mullah Omar, remained in the shadows and left the day-to-day management of the country in the hands of a council.

Akhundzada is likely to play a role above the head of the council, who is said to be similar to the country’s president, Hashimi added.

“Maybe your deputy (from Akhundzada) will play the role of ‘president'”, Hashimi said, speaking in English.

The supreme leader of the Taliban has three substitutes: Mawlavi Yaqoob, son of Mullah Omar, Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of the powerful militant network Haqqani, and Abdul Ghani Baradar, who heads the Taliban political bureau in Doha and is a founding member of the group.

Many questions about how the Taliban would rule Afghanistan have yet to be resolved, Hashimi said, but Afghanistan would not be a democracy.

“There will be no democratic system because it has no base in our country”, He said. “We will not discuss what kind of political system we should apply in Afghanistan because it is clear. It’s Sharia law and that’s it “.

Hashimi said he will join a meeting of Taliban leaders who will discuss governance issues later this week.

Recruiting soldiers and pilots who fought for the overthrown Afghan government, Hashimi said that the Taliban planned to establish a new national force that would include its own members, as well as government soldiers ready to join.

“Most of them trained in Turkey, Germany and England. We are therefore going to talk to them to resume their positions, ”he said. “Of course we will have changes, reforms in the military, but we still need them and we will call them to join us. “

Hashimi said that the Taliban needed pilots especially since they did not have themwhen they had seized helicopters and other planes at various Afghan airfields during their lightning conquest of the country after the withdrawal of foreign troops.

“We have contact with a lot of pilots,” he said. “And we asked you to come and join, join your brothers, your government. We call a lot of them and we look for the numbers (of others) to call them and invite them to their work ”.

He said the Taliban expected neighboring countries to return planes that had landed in their territory, an apparent reference to the 22 military jets, 24 helicopters and hundreds of Afghan soldiers who fled to Uzbekistan during of the weekend.

With information from Reuters

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