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The first public appearance by Haibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of Afghanistans Taliban regime, has given no room for hope that those who have taken charge of that benighted country will change for the better. Akhundzada, who was at one time even rumoured to be dead, made his first trip outside Kandahar for a two-day meeting of Taliban clerics in Kabul last week. In recent weeks, the Taliban, faced with factionalism and internal divisions, have responded by going into default mode, and women have been the first target. New restrictions on their movement have been imposed, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel for girls who want to go to school. Any expectations that this conference may come up with a way forward were belied. A resolution adopted at the end of the two-day all-male conference had only vague references to respect to the rights of women and to the need for religious and modern education. The meeting was closed to the media, but Akhundzadas speech was publicly broadcast. A hardliner in the Taliban system, he made no concessions to the demands both by Afghans and the international community that the regime must become inclusive of minorities and, more urgently, allow girls to go to school.

The rule by Taliban is not a normal arrangement. The armed group, whose luminaries include several designated terrorists, took power by force, and is determined to impose its extremist views on the people of the country. The overturning of the moderate progress in education and gender rights made over the last two decades is one thing. It has shown no sign of accommodation towards non-Pashtun, non-Sunni minority communities in Afghanistan. And it has given every sign of being in touch with the big transnational terror group, al Qaeda, and cross-border terror groups, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. Yet, this regime in Kabul wants international recognition as a legitimate government of Afghanistan and wants the worlds assistance to tide over its difficulties, including a devastating earthquake that caused large-scale destruction. Akhundzada and the Taliban must realise that just as the world is rushing to help with humanitarian assistance for this natural disaster, it can hardly stand by and watch a Taliban-made disaster unfold.

It is good that India, which re-opened its embassy in Kabul with a small team of security and other officials at the end of June, made a strong pitch for the rights of Afghan women at the Geneva conference even as it called attention to Delhis dispatch of relief material in two special aircraft for survivors of the quake.

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Taliban regime in Afghanistan seeks international recognition while continuing to belie all expectations of moderation in power - The Indian Express