Afghanistan has the world’s ‘most-wanted’ all-male government

File Image. The Taliban delegation arrives for Afghan peace talks in Doha, Qatar, Thursday, August 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Hussein Sayed)

The Taliban on September 7 announced its interim government of Afghanistan to be led by its founding member Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund.

Most of the ministers in the Taliban’s 33-member 'interim' government, including acting prime minister Hasan Akhund and his two deputies, Abdul Ghani Baradar and Abdul Salam Hanafi, have been on the UN Security Council’s sanctions list. Interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani is the FBI-wanted leader of the Haqqani Network with a US bounty of $10 million dollars on his head.

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“I assure all the countrymen that the figures will work hard towards upholding Islamic rules and sharia law in the country,” Hibatullah Akhundzada, supreme leader of Taliban said in a statement released in English on September 7.

The US state department expressed concern that the Cabinet included only Taliban members, no women, and personalities with a troubling track record, and said the new administration would be judged by its actions.

“The world is watching closely,” it said in a statement.

All UN-sanctioned leaders are subject to an assets freeze, arms embargo, and travel ban. Some of the Taliban leaders were, however, granted exemptions to travel restrictions to allow them to travel to Qatar and other countries for peace negotiations with the United States.

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The UN Security Council will meet on September 21 to consider the further extension of these exemptions. India currently heads the UN’s 1988 Sanctions Committee that oversees sanctions on the Taliban till December, a report in Hindustan Times said.

Here are the key members of the interim Taliban government in Afghanistan that may well be called the "most-wanted" government in the world.

Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund, acting Prime Minister

The new prime minister, Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund, has been the longtime chief of the Taliban’s decision-making body ‘Rehbari Shura’, or leadership council. He was the first foreign minister and then deputy prime minister during the Taliban's last rule between 1996 and 2001.

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Born between 1945 and 1950 at Pashmul village in Panjwai district of Kandahar province, Akhund is known for his proximity to the Taliban’s late founder Mullah Omar. A UN sanctions report, where he was last listed in November 2011, describes Akhund as a "close associate " to Omar.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the acting deputy prime minister

Born in 1968 at Yatimak village in Dehrawood district of Uruzgan province, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was one of the four founders of the Taliban in 1994. He is believed to be married to the sister of Mullah Omar who gave him the nom de guerre ‘baradar’ or ‘brother’. He was captured by US-Pakistani forces in Karachi, Pakistan in 2010 and released in 2018. Baradar was listed in the UN sanctions for the first time on February 23, 2001. He, however, was among Taliban leaders who were granted the exemption and allowed to travel to Qatar and other countries for peace negotiations.

Abdul Salam Hanafi, acting deputy prime minister

The second deputy prime minister, alongside Abdul Ghani Baradar, Abdul Salam Hanafi was a central member of the negotiation team in the Qatar office. He served as deputy minister of education in the previous Taliban government. Born in 1968 at Darzab district of Afghanistan’s Faryab province, Hanafi is described as “Taliban member responsible for Jawzjan province in northern Afghanistan and involved in drug trafficking” in the UN sanction list since February 2001. He is said to belong to the Uzbeks of Jawzjan province and has also studied at various religious seminaries including in Karachi, Pakistan.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, acting interior minister

Appointed as the new interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani heads the Haqqani network, a US-designated terrorist group. Born in 1977/78, Sirajuddin became the leader of the Haqqani network after the death of his father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, in 2018. Backed by the United States as an anti-Soviet militia, in the beginning, the Haqqani network is blamed for some of the deadliest attacks on coalition forces.

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One of the FBI’s ‘most wanted' men, Sirajuddin Haqqani is accused of involvement in suicide attacks and ties with Al Qaeda.  Sirajuddin is wanted for questioning in connection with the January 2008 attack on a hotel in Kabul, that killed six people, including an American citizen, according to the FBI poster seeking information about him..

The US state department has offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his arrest, according to a report in Reuters. Sirujuddin, who first faced UN sanctions in September 2007, was born in Pakistan’s North Waziristan but possesses an Afghan passport, according to reports.

Amir Khan Muttaqi, acting foreign minister

Born in 1968 at Zurmat district of Paktia province in Afghanistan, Amir Khan Muttaqi served as minister of culture and information and minister of education during the previous Taliban government. Appointed as the new acting foreign minister, Muttaqi also calls Helmand province in Afghanistan his home.  He was sent to Qatar as a member of the peace commission and negotiation team that held talks with the United States. Muttaqi was included in the UN sanctions list, where he is referred to as a member of the Taliban Supreme Council, for the first time in January 2001.

Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob, the acting defence minister

Yaqoob is the son of Taliban's founder Mullah Omar.  In his early 30s, Yaqoob commands the loyalty of a section of the movement in Kandahar because of the prestige of his father's name, according to a Reuters report. Yaqoob is among very few leaders in the new government who are not in the UN sanctions list.

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Other key ministers on the UN sanction list

The other key Taliban ministers include the minister of mines and Petroleum, Mullah Mohammad Esa Akhund; minister for Hajj and Religious Affairs, Noor Mohammad Saqib; and information minister, Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa, who is a former prisoner at Guantanamo Bay. Another UN-sanctioned Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Haq Wassiq, who earlier served as deputy minister of security has been named the intelligence chief of Afghanistan.