All is well in cyberspace: Websites of ousted Afghanistan govt are still up a week after Taliban takeover

Who is governing Afghanistan now? If you search online for the official websites, the Ashraf Ghani administration is 'still in charge', not the Taliban which took control of Kabul more than a week ago.

When a change of regime happens these days, it's almost customary for the government websites to change too, with the old administration's digital existence scrubbed out.

That's normal. But what happened in the past few days in Afghanistan is far from normal.

There were visuals of Taliban fighters taking down portraits of Ghani as the group marched towards Kabul. But the pictures are not outfrom the cyber space.

The government websites in Afghanistan are portraying a picture of calm and normalcy amid thelooming humanitarian crisis.

The Afghan president's website shows a picture of Ghani and US President Joe Biden side by side. It was last updated on July 23.

The Afghan government collapsed on August 15 as the US and its allies withdrew troops two decades after they ousted the Taliban in the weeks after September11, 2001, attacks on the US by al Qaeda militants, whose leaders had found safe haven in Taliban-ruledAfghanistan.

Leaders of the Taliban, who have sought to show a more moderate face since capturing Kabul, have begun talks on forming a government that have included discussions with some old enemies, including former President Hamid Karzai.

On Tuesday, reports said Taliban has named a former Guantanamo detaineeAbdul Qayyum Zakir as the new regime’s acting defence minister.

But the website of old defence ministry is still intact as on Wednesday.

It shows a picture of Afghanistan Armed Forces holding latest technology weapons.It was last updated on August 9, with a press release on '579 Taliban terrorists killed'.

Similarly, Afghanistan's foreign ministry shows former minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Haneef Atmar met with Chargé d'Affaires of the US Embassy in Kabul Ross Wilson, to discuss security developments in the country.

Tens of thousands of Afghans fearing persecution have thronged Kabul's airport since the takeover.

They include the country's best and brightest.

The lucky ones securing seats on flights, mostly arranged by Western governments, that have so far evacuated at least 70,000 people.

The Taliban on Tuesday asked the US to stop urging talented Afghans to leave the country.

But clearly, those who were managing the country's official website have either fled, or are in hiding.

The ghosts of an uprooted government remain in cyber space. It is emblematic of a variety of things: the flight of information technology professionals, a lack of command and control structure, a government still in the making and under discussion, a constantly evolving crisis, the old regime making it appear it's still in charge, or the new regime simply not knowing who has the keys to take down these websites.