Reports of internecine tribal warfare breaking out surfaced as the Taliban who captured power in Afghanistan last month struggled to form a new government in Kabul.

The exercise was stalled, reliable sources, due to differences over making the government ‘inclusive’ as announced earlier by the movement’s co-founder, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar who was expected to head the government. But many factions within the movement are opposed to inclusion of ethnic minorities, especially when the Tajiks are putting up a tough fight in the northern Panjshir Valley, the only area not under the Taliban’s sway.


Several Taliban fighters were reported to have been killed and captured in the ongoing fight.

Any government-formation after a military victory is always problematic, analysts say. Having shown their single-minded zeal to capture power through violence, the Taliban have floundered at forming their first government fighting as differences over personalities, tribal loyalties and proximity to Pakistan, where most of them had spent long years, appeared to frustrate efforts at reconciliation.

There was speculation that they were likely being “micro-managed” by principal benefactor and neighbour Pakistan grew after the much-publicized visit to Kabul of Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed, Director General, ISI, of the Pakistan Army. Such visits are kept under tight security and silence. But the publicity seemed in keeping with the current exultant mood of Islamabad at having achieved a ‘victory’ of sorts in helping the Taliban win.

Gen. Hamidz did not help the situation by telling the media that he was in Kabul “to meet the ambassador”, and then making him talk to journalists.

The ISI chief’s presence in Islamabad has given rise to speculation that Islamabad is pressuring the Taliban to make Sirajuddin Haqqani, the current chief of the dreaded Haqqani Network that is the ISI’s favourite. Not formally a part of the Taliban, the Network is aligned to it and Sirajuddin is the deputy commander of the military wing.

Sirajuddin individually and his Network are proscribed by the United Nations, the United States and the European Union. While Islamabad is said to be pushing for him, the Taliban and their sympathizers are arguing that having such a person to head the government would shut out all prospects of the new government being recognised and any economic help that Afghanistan sorely needs.

Reports of differences becoming intense and even violent emerged from well-placed sources in Kabul and in diplomatic circles in Islamabad and Qatar, the latter emerging as the principal hub for much of the negotiation the Taliban have been involved in for the past many months.

Mullah Baradar has his adversaries within the movement, one of the points being his being imprisoned in Pakistan for eight years between 2011 and 2019.  Sources said this could work both says, either of them making him a suspect in the eyes of the rival factions.

Baradar was then ‘punished’ by the Pakistani establishment for seeking to talk to then President Hamid Karzai. The rivals have ensured that neither Karzai, nor Abdullah Abdullah, the chief negotiator in the Ashraf Ghani Government, would be in the new government. Both are in Kabul, supposedly under house arrest.

There is little doubt that the international community, including China, Russia and Iran, as of now favourably disposed to the Taliban, is extremely wary.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he hoped the new Taliban government would be ‘civilised’.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, visiting Pakistan, was told by Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Saturday that Islamabad will "assist" the Taliban to form an inclusive administration in neighbouring Afghanistan. Such 'assistance' goes against the Western thinking of governance.

The new Iranian President Ibrahmi Riasi, surprising everyone, on Sunday (September 5) asked for fresh elections in Afghanistan. Iran’s reservations about the security of millions of Shia among the Hazaras in Afghanistan is well-known. The forces resisting the new Kabul regime include a large number of Shias.  

Well-placed sources say any marginalization of Mullah Baradar would be tantamount to insulting one of the two co-founders of the movement. This could also weaken the position of Mullah Yaqub, son of the other founder and suopremo, Mullah Omar.

Young Yaqub had been supervising the military operations. Hisans,  position is sought to be undermined by the Haqqanis who, besides being from rival Pushtun tribes, claim to have done much of the yet-to-be concluded fighting in the North and that they were the first to enter Kabul on August 15.

Although the government-formation has been pushed by a week, analysts say a combination of tribal rivalries and proximity to Pakistan could make the exercise problematic.

Hmmmm


Same thing happened between bokoharam and iswap

There is nothing like coexistence with these people. just like oil and water