Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has appointed 15 Taliban officials to new positions, including their provincial governors, deputy governors and senior security officials, according to a statement.
According to a notice released by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, Gul Haidar Shafaq, previously Taliban governor of Jawzjan, was appointed governor of Bamiyan, while Abdullah Sarhadi, the Taliban former Bamiyan governor, was reassigned to Jawzjan.
The statement said Ahmad Shah Din Dost, commander of the Taliban’s Al-Badr army corps, was appointed governor of Sar-e-Pul province.
Other appointments included Anzar Gul Abdullah, chief of staff of the 201 Khalid bin Walid army corps, as deputy governor of Laghman; Ghulam Rahman Haidari, head of the Taliban’s anti-corruption department, as deputy governor of Nangarhar; and Makhdoom Abdul Khabeer, a battalion commander in Sar-e-Pul, as police chief of Samangan.
The former Taliban intelligence chief in Kunduz was appointed police chief of Laghman, while Abdullah, the district governor of Maiwand in Kandahar, was named commissioner at the Spin Boldak border crossing. Two other officials were reassigned to district-level and military command posts in Kandahar, the statement said.
The reshuffle is part of a pattern seen since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, with senior officials frequently moved between posts rather than replaced, analysts say.
Research by the Middle East Institute has previously shown that the Taliban cabinet is dominated by figures from one ethnic group and political background and includes no women.
Experts say senior civil and military positions are largely held by Taliban members, while the Taliban have continued efforts to reduce the number of lower-level civil servants hired under the previous Western-backed government, replacing them with their own appointees.
