KABUL, Afghanistan —Taliban on Tuesday announced the appointment of eight officials to senior provincial and security roles, including a governor, four deputy governors, and a police chief, according to a statement.
Notably, seven of the eight appointees are former Taliban officials, with no new faces except one whose previous position was unspecified.
According to the Taliban’s statement, the appointments include Mohammad Idris Anwari, who previously served as deputy governor in Parwan Province, now appointed as the Taliban governor of Parwan.
Additionally, Mohammad Abu Al-Wafa Osmani, previously a security advisor to the Taliban’s Ministry of Interior, will serve as Taliban’s deputy governor in Parwan.
Other appointments include Mohammad Nader Haqjo, Taliban’s former deputy governor of Sar-e-Pul Province, now the Taliban deputy governor of Takhar, and Khan Mohammad Haqqani, Taliban’s former deputy governor of Takhar, reassigned as deputy governor of Sar-e-Pul. Nik Mohammad Hazeefa, the former Taliban intelligence chief in Bamyan, has been appointed Taliban’s deputy governor of Ghor Province.
In security roles, Mohammadullah Bara will serve as Taliban’s police chief in Paktika, while Mohammad Sharif Haleem, the Taliban’s former Paktika police chief, has been named head of the Taliban-run Education Directorate in Nangarhar.
This wave of appointments continues a trend observed over the past three years, where the Taliban have mostly reassigned their own senior officials to new roles rather than bringing in new figures. In September, the Taliban also appointed 13 former officials to new positions, following a similar pattern.
A recent study by Amu, an independent Afghan news organization, found that nearly all appointments in nine months have involved shifting Taliban officials from one role to another, with few new individuals being introduced to government roles. Since 2021, Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada has issued over 75 decrees resulting in nearly 400 transfers and appointments across the government, underscoring the group’s reliance on established personnel in their administration.
