The Taliban celebrated Afghanistan‘s Independence Day on Thursday by declaring it had beaten “the arrogant of power of the world” in the United States. However, challenges like bringing the country’s government back on track and potentially facing armed opposition are staring the movement right in the face.

The Taliban are under pressure to come up with a plan for the kind of government they want to lead. So far, they’ve only said that their government will be guided by Shariah, or Islamic, law.

In the Taliban’s view, as they celebrated the anniversary of independence from Britain, they also have successfully “forced another arrogant power of the world, the United States,” to retreat from Afghanistan.

The movement, however, did not acknowledge a violent suppression of a protest by the insurgents on Wednesday in the eastern city of Jalalabad, which saw demonstrations lower the Taliban’s flag and replace it with Afghanistan’s tricolour.

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Questions remain over Afghanistan’s $9 billion foreign reserves, the vast majority now apparently frozen in the US. The country’s Central Bank head warns the country’s supply of physical US dollars is “close to zero,” which will see inflation raise the prices of needed food while depreciating its currency, the afghani.

Meanwhile, a drought has seen over 40% of the country’s crop lost, according to the World Food Program in Afghanistan. Many fled the Taliban advance and now live in parks and open spaces in Kabul.

Even though two of Afghanistan’s key border crossings with Pakistan, Torkham near Jalalabad and Chaman near Spin Boldak, are now open for cross-border trade, traders still fear insecurity on the roads, confusion over customs duties and pressures to price their goods even higher given the economic conditions. Meanwhile, opposition figures fleeing to Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley now talk of launching an armed resistance under the banner of the Northern Alliance, which allied with the US during the 2001 invasion.

There has been no armed opposition to the Taliban. But videos from the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, a stronghold of the Northern Alliance militias that allied with the US during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, appear to show potential opposition figures gathering there. That area is in the only province that has not fallen to the Taliban.

(With AP inputs)