Mawlawi Zubair Mutmaeen, the former head of the Taliban’s suicide-bombing squads in Kabul, has now been named as chief of police for one of Afghanistan’s capital districts, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Mutmaeen has been busy mediating marital disputes, The WSJ reported.
Under his management, Mutmaeen’s Taliban-turned-cops are neither being paid for their work nor receiving training in actual policing. While it is not entirely clear what laws should be enforced, the newly instated cops are guided by their understanding of the Islamic Sharia. The Taliban has also said that they would like to reinstate the 1964 constitution during the King Zahir Shah era, excluding the clauses they view as contradicting Islam, according to The WSJ.
“Previously I was serving Islam, and now I’m also serving Islam. There is no difference,” Mr. Mutmaeen said, the outlet reported.
A Taliban commander used to run suicide-bombing squads in Kabul. Today he is busy mediating domestic disputes and fielding complaints about stolen cars as the Afghan capital’s chief of police. https://t.co/qnKgovF0Nm
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 20, 2021
Derived from the Quran, Sharia law covers both criminal and civil cases, in addition to moral conduct. The penalties for some misdemeanors are incredibly harsh and include whipping for cases of adultery and cutting off hands for theft, according to The WSJ.
Nowadays, previous Taliban fighters patrol Kabul wearing old police uniforms. The Taliban fighters operate out of sprawling police stations and drive about the city in U.S.-supplied Ford Rangers flaunting American M-16 assault rifles, The WSJ reported. Some experts believe the Taliban is incapable of instating any sort of structured government.
“There is no indication that the Taliban has any idea how to run a country,” Asfandyar Mir, a senior expert at the United States Institute of Peace, a bipartisan federal institution established by Congress and based in Washington, said, according to The WSJ. The new government implemented by the Taliban is also causing a serious risk of poverty and starvation for Afghan’s due to the declining economy. (RELATED: Biden Administration Meets With ‘Senior Taliban Representatives,’ Describes Talks As ‘Candid And Professional’)
Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the Wilson Center, also expressed concern for the Taliban’s new government.
“You’re going to have several members of the Haqqani network — which has been implicated in some of the most mass casualty horrific terrorist attacks in Afghanistan over the years — and several of these leaders are going to be occupying these top spots, including the interior ministry, and clearly that is a major cause for concern, no matter how you slice it,” he said, according to CNBC.
This disorderly approach has pervaded other areas of Afghanistan’s new government. Due to thousands of educated professionals abandoning their previous jobs or leaving the country entirely, the Taliban appointed Islamic clerics with little prior management experience to run ministries and government departments, The WSJ reported.
“Jihad was a glorious time. The fighting was hard, we ate little, but we could become heroes,” said Hajji Naseem, former Taliban fighter now the administrative head of Kabul’s 8th police district. “Now I can’t sleep through the night because I am worrying that maybe a robbery is happening some place, or a woman is being beaten by a family member,” the WSJ reported.