Taliban on Tuesday announced a caretaker cabinet of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, after taking over the war-torn country last month in August.
Mullah Muhammad Hassan Akhund will head the acting Taliban govt in Afghanistan, and the group co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar will be one of the two deputies, announced the group's spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid during a press conference in Kabul. The Taliban announced the first members of their new Afghanistan government after delaying it twice. Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi is another one of the two deputies to Muhammad Hassan.
Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund had served as foreign minister and deputy prime minister during the Taliban's previous government in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
The Taliban spokesperson said that Amir Khan Muttaqi will be Afghanistan's acting foreign minister while Mullah Yaqoob, son of Taliban's founder Mullah Omar, will serve as the acting defence minister.
Sarajuddin Haqqani, the new acting interior minister, 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.
Mujahid reiterated the cabinet was an “acting” government and that the group will “try to take people from other parts of the country”.
The Taliban, who swept to power last month, had been expected to announce a government since the US-led evacuation was completed at the end of August.
