Harsh Warning from Mullah Yaqoob About the Taliban’s Future.
Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid, Taliban Defense Minister, delivered an unusually stern speech sharply criticizing ethnic favoritism, nepotism, and a continuing culture of revenge within the group, warning that the persistence of these trends could lead the Taliban toward failure.
He emphasized in a cautionary tone that the group’s post-power behaviors should not be such that the public calls them “madmen.”
Mullah Yaqoob also urged Taliban members to reassess their priorities, stating that focusing on personal and familial interests “for the next hundred years,” while human life is limited, could leave a negative legacy in history.
He stressed that what truly matters is the judgment of future generations and the legacy this period leaves in the minds of the people.
These remarks come amid multiple reports of the detention, torture, and killing of opponents in provinces such as Panjshir, Baghlan, Badakhshan, Kunduz, Faryab, Herat, and Takhar—areas mostly non-Pashtun and under forces affiliated with the Taliban Ministry of Defense.
Critics interpret these statements as signs of internal divisions and an implicit acknowledgment of disorder and intra-group competition, although no tangible changes in the Taliban security forces’ behavior have been reported so far.
