The Taliban must deal with these leaders to avoid civil war in Afghanistan

 The militant group has been holding meetings in Kabul with Hamid Karzai, the first president after the U.S. invasion, and Abdullah Abdullah, No. 2 in the ousted administration

The Taliban’s military takeover of Afghanistan was swift and decisive. Forming an inclusive government to avoid another civil war is proving to be much harder. The militant group has been holding meetings in Kabul with Hamid Karzai, the first president after the U.S. invasion, and Abdullah Abdullah, No. 2 in the ousted administration, after leader Ashraf Ghani fled the country earlier this month. The Taliban’s membership is drawn largely from the majority ethnic Pashtun population, which is most dominant in the southern part of the country.

Despite having the upper hand now, the Taliban realizes any stable governing formation will need to include influential warlords and representatives from ethnic Uzbeks, Tajiks and Hazaras. Without that, the country risks falling into the same sort of internal conflict that erupted in the 1990s.

Here Are the Shadowy Taliban Leaders Now Running Afghanistan

Here are the leaders the Taliban needs to have on board:

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Former Prime Minister, 72

The former prime minister of Afghanistan and leader of the once powerful Hizb-e-Islami political party is a long-time survivor in Afghan politics. Once part of the Mujahideen fighters who were trained by the U.S. during the Cold War era to fight the Soviet Union in the 1980s, Hekmatyar has been both an ally and an enemy of the Taliban over the last 25 years. He has been sanctioned by the U.S. as a “specially designated global terrorist.”