Akram Shah Asim has been appointed president at Kandahar University, while Mohammad Yaqub Haqqani has been installed in the same post at Khost University. The social media pages of the state universities now show the two — both of whom come from the madrasah religious school system — as presidents of the universities.

Three others who are linked to the Taliban — Shafiullah Haqqani, Mohammad Sediq Kamal, and Shir Ahmad Abbas — have been appointed as the head of higher education institutions in Maidan Wardak Province, Nimroz Province, and Paktika Province.

The professors said that most of the vice chancellors of the financial and administrative departments at universities have also been filled with people linked to the Taliban, and that people close to the Taliban have taken the lead in other scientific departments.