Kabul – The Taliban’s leadership appears to be facing a visible internal division, with senior security and intelligence officials delivering strong warnings of military retaliation even as the highest clerical authorities emphasize restraint and regional non-interference.
The contradiction highlights a structural split within the Taliban regime’s power structure, often seen as a gap between the clerical leadership in Kandahar and the influential security and intelligence networks based in Kabul.
Hardline Warning from Intelligence
The latest sign of this divergence came from Tajmir Jawad, Deputy Director of the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI), the Taliban’s powerful intelligence agency.
Speaking at a madrasa graduation ceremony, Jawad issued a firm warning: any “imposed conflict” would be met with decisive force.
Notably, Jawad’s statement aligns with the recent rhetoric of Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, who has strongly rejected cross-border security concerns raised by Pakistan, while simultaneously asserting the Taliban’s full sovereignty.
Also See: From Khost, Haqqani Deflects Pakistan’s TTP Warning, Invokes Post-9/11 Rhetoric
Ulema Decree Stresses Peace
Jawad’s statement was delivered days after high-ranking religious scholars in Kabul, acting under the authority of the Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, issued a fatwa (religious decree). This decree urged Afghans not to use Afghan soil to harm other countries.
The stark difference can be seen in messaging, where the religious body calls for restraint and territorial responsibility, and the security wing openly invokes jihad-era mobilization and warns of war, suggesting a lack of coordination and a growing policy conflict at the highest levels.
The Risk of Internal Erosion
Analysts are cautioning that this contradiction is not merely rhetorical but structural, raising concerns about the cohesion of the Taliban command.
The sequencing of recent events, from Haqqani’s security wing making claims of external threats to now the GDI openly using deterrence language, shows an attempt by the Haqqani-aligned security bloc to establish a dominant narrative based on force.
Historically, public divergence between religious authority and armed-intelligence networks in Afghanistan has been a precursor to internal conflict, such as the fragmentation of the mujahideen in the 1990s.
