IS members, ex-military personnel barred from joining Taliban in eastern Afghanistan

The Taliban's eastern military wing has barred former Afghan soldiers, police officers, and members of the Islamic State from joining the group, eastern Nangarhar province's governor office announced on Saturday, a media report said.

Those who refuse to wear beards will not be allowed to join either. Taliban members are also not allowed to wear dark glasses and cover their faces, according to the office's statement.

IS-K had claimed the responsibility for the recent attack at the Kabul airport that killed over nearly 170 including 13 US troops. Reports say that the headquarter of the Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) is in Nangarhar province.

The recent announcement by the Taliban's eastern military wing appears an attempt to show a moderate face in a bid to get global recognition as the Kabul blasts have drawn widespread criticism.

The Taliban seized Kabul on August 15, completing a week-long nationwide offensive. The radical movement then declared the end of the 20-year-war in the Central Asian country and promised that Afghanistan's form of government would be determined in the near future.

The Taliban have taken control of war-torn Afghanistan, but there is still an important gap between naming a government and fully taking up its functions.

In Kabul, as in much of the country, the most important government departments, apart from street-level security, are not functioning.

In the face of a looming economic crisis, including a worsening cash shortage that has put strains on the availability of fuel, food and other staples, the past two weeks have been a scramble by the Taliban to establish themselves, both in the public eye and in practice, as the country's new governors.

( With inputs from ANI )

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