Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Leads The Afghan Government, Haibatullah Akhundaza Focuses On Religious Issues

Tokoh Taliban Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. (Wikimedia/Afghan government)

JAKARTA - Taliban co-founder, Mullah Abdul Ghani, Baradar will lead Afghanistan's new government to be announced soon, sources within the group said on Friday.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who heads the Taliban's political office, will join Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, son of the late Taliban co-founder Mullah Omar, and Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, in senior government positions, three sources said.

The name Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar has been mentioned several times as the strongest candidate to lead the new Afghan government.

"All the top leaders have arrived in Kabul, where preparations are in the final stages to announce a new government", a Taliban official told Reuters, on condition of anonymity.

"Haibatullah Akhunzada, the supreme religious leader of the Taliban, will focus on matters of religion and governance within an Islamic framework", another Taliban source said.

The Taliban, who captured Kabul on August 15, has swept through much of the country, but are facing resistance in the Panjshir Valley, north of the capital, with reports of heavy fighting and heavy casualties.

Several thousand regional militia fighters and remnants of the government's armed forces have gathered in the rugged valley under the leadership of Ahmad Massoud, son of former Mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.

Attempts to negotiate a settlement appear to have failed, with each side blaming the other for the failure.

Meanwhile, the government's legitimacy in the eyes of international donors and investors will be crucial to an economy grappling with drought and the ravages of a conflict that has killed some 240,000 Afghans.

Humanitarian groups have warned of impending disaster and the economy, which for years depended on millions of dollars in foreign aid, was on the verge of collapse.