JURIST EXCLUSIVE – Law students and lawyers in Afghanistan are filing reports with JURIST on the situation there after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. Here, a lawyer in Kabul offers his observations and perspective on the chaotic security situation in the country. For privacy and security reasons we are withholding our correspondent’s name and institutional affiliation. The text has been only lightly edited to respect the author’s voice.

The situation in the country is uncertain far more than the past, and people are worried. People are trying to keep distance from the Taliban everywhere in Kabul city so as not to get affected in case anything happens.

I talked to a friend at the ministry of industry and commerce today over the phone. He told me that everyone at the ministry is worried most of his colleagues have left their jobs only to prevent themselves being too close to the Taliban. They are also not going to any gatherings at the ministry.

There was a bomb blast today in Kabul in which two Taliban soldiers and four to six school students were injured. The Taliban have confirmed that two of their members were injured and they started investigations to arrest its perpetrators. Most of the previous attacks were conducted by the ISIS-K in since the Taliban came to power. No group has taken responsibility of today’s attack, but it seems that the Taliban are a ISIS-K target.

Today’s attack and the previous attacks by the ISIS-K shows that the Taliban are facing a major challenge, which is different decisions and opinions on security matters in the country. The Taliban have established commissions in various sectors to govern the country; these commissions operate in areas such as justice, finance, health, security and etc.. These commissions receive direct commands from the leadership followed by the ministries in each and every sector. For this purpose, the Taliban have appointed ministers to the ministries such as defense, interior, national security, and other security agencies. However, recent incidents have proven that they have no security agenda at least until now.

In my opinion, one of the challenges faces the Taliban is that ministers and security officials are appointed from different groups within the Taliban and that has created different agendas and opinions among them. For instance, the minister of defense is from the Haqqani Network which has different and most of the times extreme opinions than other groups within the Taliban. There are even some rumors that Al-Qaida have presence within the Taliban and its leader is also in Afghanistan at the moment.

Dealing with Haqqani Network, Al-Qaida, and other groups makes it almost impossible for the Taliban to focus on development of a comprehensive security plan. Each of the above groups/networks follows their own agenda in the country. They sometimes act collectively which makes it harder for them to take a combined decision on a national level.

The above challenges the Taliban to govern these different security agencies far better that they do today. Things will get worse if they continue less attention into these security institutions.

The top leadership functions as religious, spiritual, and political leaders rather than operational institutions. Therefore, they lack any professional, up-to-date, and responsive plan at any technical level.