IEA’s Mullah Yaqoob & his assertions against Pakistan

Somewhat unknown to the general public before August 15, 2021, the current, interim Defence Minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid is now one of the most recognized names and faces among the Taliban leadership.

The son of the infamous co-founder of the Taliban movement Mullah Mohammad Omer and nephew (alleged) of the current interim First Deputy Prime Minister of the IEA Mullah Baradar, Mullah Yaqoob was virtually unknown before 2015 when the news of his father’s death was revealed that year & confirmed by the Taliban. The group also acknowledged that their spiritual leader had died in 2013.

Mullah Yaqoob’s first media appearance was through an audio message that he released in 2015, right after the news of his father’s death was announced. In his message, he appealed for unity amongst the Taliban while simultaneously dispelling reports of his death due to an inside job.

Although Mullah Yaqoob’s rise through the rank & file has been meteoric since 2015, and among the Taliban circles and supporters he is celebrated as a great leader and field commander, however, it is said that there’s more to his rise than what meets the eye, which also explains his current political narrative & orientation that he has adopted recently.

Known to be a moderate and a strong supporter of the Doha Accords with the US, (just like his uncle (alleged) Mullah Baradar), Mullah Yaqoob is said to be a highly ambitious, uninspiring and self-centred personality whose main reason to rise to a top leadership position was being the son of the Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Omer. It is also said that he tried replacing his father after his death but failed initially.

Yaqoob is said to have strong ties to the US and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) which is also said to be another reason for his rise to a leadership role. According to prominent experts like Antonio Giustozzi, Saudi Arabia on behest of the US had been providing crucial tactical support to Yaqoob against his contemporaries who had diverging inclinations to him.

For instance, Yaqoob succeeded Ibrahim Sadr, a Taliban field commander who had close ties to Iran. Ibrahim was replaced by Yaqoob in May 2020 during a major shakeup by Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhunzada with a strong support by the KSA and the US as both the countries wanted people to be in positions of power who were not close to rivals of US or the KSA, such as Iran. Sadr was later placed on the US Treasury Department’s Global Terrorist list in 2018 as well.

The earlier mentioned organizational shakeup by the Mullah Akhunzada is also said to have been undertaken for the very purpose of removing spoilers and to consolidate control over the group right before the commencement of talks with the Ghani administration and the US, as some factions and leaders (mostly hardliners) were against negotiations with the US and its installed regime in Kabul.

Coming back to Mullah Yaqoob, it is said that he fled to Pakistan with his family after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 where he spent most of his life and was educated in hard-line religious seminaries in Karachi. Experts and analysts state that majority of Yaqoob’s time out of Afghanistan and his fast-paced rise to leadership role in the group (owing to his family’s reputation and resources) did not sit well with many Taliban members.

The tumultuous era of Mullah Mansur as the supreme leader of the Taliban (when there were several feuds and defections of multiple groups), is said to be the handy work of Mullah Yaqoob and Taliban members loyal to him. After Mullah Mansur’s death due to a US drone strike in 2016, Mullah Akhunzada was appointed as the Taliban chief. His selection was also strongly opposed but after he appointed Mullah Yaqoob as the deputy leader, the opposition to his position died down.

Besides using his family’s reputation and resources to consolidate his position, Mullah Yaqoob is also known to eliminate opposition by extending favours. For instance, the appointment of Abdul Qayyum Zakir as the IEA’s Deputy Minister of Defence. Mullah Zakir is known to be a powerful field commander & former military chief of the Taliban till 2014 who enjoys the backing of several other hard-line commanders of the Taliban. However, Mullah Zakir had strong links to Iran and opposed the talks with the US.

Mullah Yaqoob bought his loyalty by making Zakir his Deputy Defence Minister, who is now leading the fight against the National Resistance Front (NRF) in the restive Panjshir province of Afghanistan.

As recently as a couple of months ago, Mullah Yaqoob is once again the centre of international news pertaining to Afghanistan, especially since the elimination of Al-Qaeda (AQ) leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a US drone strike in Kabul on July 31, 2022.

Zawahiri was eliminated by the US drone strike that targeted his hide-out in central Kabul that was only a few blocks away from the IEA’s intelligence HQ.

As the main person responsible for the Afghanistan’s security, Yaqoob was quick to blame Pakistan for “allegedly” providing its air space to US drones for the strike and the US for violating the terms of the Doha Accord by violating Afghanistan’s sovereignty.

Just like the modus operandi of the previous Ghani administration, it has become a trademark of some elements in the Taliban regime as well to blame others, particularly Pakistan for their own shortcomings, incompetence and bad governance.

The Taliban had made many promises to the international community and the Afghan people after taking over Kabul on August 15 last year. However, living up to those promises is proving to be a far cry after more than one year in absolute power.

The country continues to face diplomatic isolation internationally with no country willing to recognize the Taliban regime. Human rights continue to be a soaring issue with persistent curbs on girls education, media freedom and political inclusion of other minorities in Afghanistan. Reports of forced disappearances and extra-judicial killings of dissidents and political opponents continue to surface every day.

International terrorist organizations such as AQ, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) continue to enjoy sanctuaries in Afghanistan and using Afghan soil against neighbouring states, which is a clear violation of the terms of the Doha Accord.

The country is facing severe economic crisis and acute shortage of funds to run the administrative affairs of the country due to the non-recognition of the regime due to its inability to fulfil its international commitments.

Moreover, fault lines among different Taliban factions are also surfacing now. It is reported that tensions between Yaqoob and the Haqqanis for consolidating control over Kabul are rising as both are now part of the current IEA cabinet. Many other provincial commanders have also parted ways with the Taliban as of late as well.

Experts state that it were these internal differences of the two which gives credence to speculations that it was Yaqoob who disclosed Zawahiri’s location to the US (probably during his recent visit to Qatar) in order to get in US’ good graces and build confidence with it.

If true, this would be a major revelation of Taliban & the US working together, despite the anti-US rhetoric the group has been selling to the Afghan people and the world. Important to note here is that ISKP via its mouthpiece Al-Azaim Foundation’s latest publication blamed the Taliban for helping the US in eliminating Al-Zawahiri.

Mullah Yaqoob had claimed recently that the security situation in Afghanistan under the Taliban is “100% OK” but the reality cannot be farther from it. ISKP has been making a strong comeback as of late with several attacks throughout the country targeting mosques, seminaries and religious scholars (eliminating many in the process).

There have been attacks in the heart of Kabul, the most recent one being the suicide attack by ISKP outside the Russian embassy in Kabul that claimed the lives of 2 Russian diplomatic staff members and almost two dozen civilians.

Yaqoob’s discourse against Pakistan at this time is a tested ploy to gain attention and support from the Indian and Western inspired Afghan circles while simultaneously diverting attention of the Afghan public from the bad governance, incompetence and short-comings of the IEA regime in Afghanistan. Projecting the country’s troubles on to others particularly neighbours like Pakistan has been a tested and convenient strategy of Afghan rulers for decades.

By externalizing Afghanistan’s troubles Mullah Yaqoob is proving to be no different than the previous rulers of Afghanistan. This discourse will not alleviate Afghanistan’s troubles but will prove more counterproductive. Alienating neighbours and resorting to unwarranted blame game will only increase Afghanistan’s woes and disturb regional unity and integration, something which the region desperately need at the moment.