Until the new Taliban government had been announced and formal appointments could be made, the official said he had the job of securing the office belonging to the finance ministry, using a retinue of wild-looking Taliban footsoldiers to stand guard.

The Taliban takeover has seen thousands of such fighters descend on the capital Kabul, many of them from insurgency heartlands such as Kandahar and Helmand. Often sporting large turbans and unruly long hair and beards as well as weapons, these rural militiamen are a far cry from the sophisticated and fashionable Kabul residents they have come to watch over. After arriving, they drive around in pick-up trucks or stand guard at checkpoints.

“When I used to come to the city, I had to sneak in like a thief, in case the government caught me. I could not even walk freely in my own country,” said one fighter from Kapisa, who was wrapped in an orange shawl and camouflage jacket and standing guard outside the shuttered British embassy.

“Now we are in charge. We never thought we would see a victory like this.”

The tumultuous changes of the past month have meant Taliban fighters are now guarding the very same ministries and hotels that they were trying to attack only a few weeks ago. At another ministry building a commander from near Spin Boldak in Kandahar province spoke into a walkie-talkie and oversaw his men as they checked people in for appointments.

The commander, who gave his name only as Nisar, said he had joined the insurgents some 18 years ago.

“We are happy that we are victorious. We fought for 20 years. We want Islamic law, and not just in Afghanistan.”

Refusing to speak English

He revealed he could speak excellent English, but then refused to do so, saying he did not want to speak the language used by the invaders. “I won’t speak English with you because I don’t like it,” he told the Telegraph.

“I joined the Taliban because when the Americans came, we had our government, our culture and the Americans came and attacked us.

“They didn’t want to come for al-Qaeda, they had their own interests and wanted to destroy our country.”

In recent years his fighters had largely fought in Kandahar and Helmand, he said, where they had often clashed with British forces.

Now he echoed the pronouncements of the movement’s spokesmen saying that their revived emirate would learn from the mistakes of its 1990s predecessor.