Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, co-founder of the Taliban and leader of the Provisional Government
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, one of the co-founders of the Taliban, released from prison Pakistan At the request of the US government three years ago.
Just nine months ago, she posed with Donald Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to sign a peace deal in Doha, which is scrapped today.
Last month, his forces captured Kabul and he is now set to become the next leader of Afghanistan, reversing the fate that humiliated Washington.
While Haibatullah Akhundzada is the overall leader of the Taliban, Baradar is the head of its political office and is one of the most recognizable faces of the chiefs involved in peace talks in Qatar.
In September 2020, Baradar was pictured with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who urged the Taliban to “seize this opportunity to reach a political settlement and reach a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire”, the US said in a statement. .
The 53-year-old was deputy leader under former premier Mullah Mohammed Omar, whose support for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden led to the US-led invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11.
Baradar is said to have made a quick flight from Doha to Kabul on Sunday evening as terrorists stormed the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Born in 1968 in Uruzgan province, Baradar was raised in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban movement.
He fought with the Mujahideen against the Soviet Union in the 1980s, until he was ousted from power in 1989.
Later, Afghanistan was hit by a bloody civil war between rival warlords and Baradar founded an Islamic school in Kandahar with his former commander, Mohammad Omar.
The two mullahs helped found the Taliban movement, an ideology that embraced hardline conservatism and strove for the creation of an Islamic emirate.
With enthusiasm, hatred of greedy warlords and financial support from Pakistan’s secret services, the Taliban seized power in 1996 after conquering provincial capitals before marching on Kabul, as they have done in recent months . .
Baradar had several different roles during the Taliban’s five-year rule and was deputy defense minister when the US invaded in 2001.
He went into hiding but remained active under the leadership of the Taliban in exile.
In 2010, the CIA tracked him down in the Pakistani city of Karachi and was arrested by the Pakistani Intelligence Service (ISI) in February of the same year.
But in 2018, he was released at the request of the Trump administration as part of ongoing talks with the Taliban in Qatar, on the understanding that he could help broker peace.
In February 2020, Baradar signed the Doha Agreement in which the US pledged to leave Afghanistan on the grounds that the Taliban would enter into a power-sharing arrangement with President Ashraf Ghani’s government in Kabul.
In September he was pictured with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who urged the Taliban to “seize this opportunity to reach a political settlement and reach a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire”, the US said in a statement.
Pompeo ‘welcomed Afghan leadership and ownership in the effort to end the 40-year war and ensure that Afghanistan is not a threat to the United States or its allies.’
The Doha accord was heralded as a significant peace declaration, but it has proved to be nothing but a ploy by the Taliban.
The jihadists waited until tens of thousands of American soldiers quelled two decades of work by a US-led coalition before launching a major offensive to take over the country.
Haibatullah Akhundzada, future Emir of Afghanistan and Islamic head of the Taliban
Haibatullah Akhundzada, ‘The Leader of the Faithful’, is the Taliban’s supreme commander who has the final word on political, religious and military policy.
Akhundzada is expected to take the title of Emir of Afghanistan.
Believed to be around 60 years old, he is not known for his military tactics, but is revered as an Islamic scholar and rules the Taliban by that authority.
He took office in 2016 following the killing of former group chief Akhtar Mansoor in a US drone strike on the Pakistani border.
After being appointed leader, Akhundzada secured a pledge of loyalty from al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, who praised the religious scholar – calling him the ‘Emir of the Faithful’.
This helped seal his jihadist credentials with the group’s longtime allies.
Akhundzada became the head of the Taliban’s Council of Religious Scholars after the US invasion and is believed to have authored many of its fatwas (Islamic legal rulings).
Akhundzada was tasked with the overwhelming challenge of unifying a militant movement that had briefly disbanded during a bitter power struggle following the assassination of his predecessor, and the revelation that the leadership had succeeded Taliban founder Mullah Omar. had led. Death was hidden for years.
The leader’s public profile has largely been limited to the release of annual messages during Islamic holidays.
Akhundzada was born around 1959 in the Panjwei district of Kandahar province to a religious scholar.
His family was forced to flee their home during the Soviet invasion and he joined the resistance as a young man.
He was one of the Taliban’s first new recruits in the 1990s and immediately impressed his superiors with his knowledge of Islamic law.
When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan’s western Farah province, he was put in charge of fighting crime in the area.
As the Taliban took control of much of the country, Akhunzad became the head of the military court and deputy head of its Supreme Court.
He became the head of the Taliban’s Council of Religious Scholars after the US invasion in 2001 and is believed to be the author of many of its fatwas (Islamic legal rulings), including the public executions of murderers and adulterers and the beheadings of thieves.
Sources told Reuters that he had been preaching and teaching at a mosque in Kuchlak, a town in southwestern Pakistan, for nearly 15 years before being named as the new leader.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, son of famous commander of anti-Soviet jihad
Sirajuddin doubles as both deputy leader of the Taliban movement, while also leading the powerful Haqqani network.
The Haqqani Network is a US-designated terrorist group that has been viewed as one of the most dangerous groups fighting Afghan and US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan during the past two decades.
The group is notorious for its use of suicide bombers and is believed to have carried out some of the most high-profile attacks in Kabul in the past few years.
An FBI wanted a poster for Sirajuddin Haqqani, son of the famous anti-Soviet jihad commander
The network has also been accused of killing top Afghan officials and holding abducted Western civilians for ransom – including US soldier Bowe Bergdahl released in 2014.
The Haqqanis, known for their independence, war skills and trade deals, are believed to have overseen operations in the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan, while the Taliban’s leadership council has considerable power. have influence.
Mullah Yakub, son of Taliban founder
The son of Mullah Omar, the founder of the Taliban.
Mullah Yakub heads the group’s powerful military commission, which oversees a vast network of field commanders charged with carrying out strategic operations of insurgency in the war.
His lineage and relationship with his father – who enjoyed cult-like status as leader of the Taliban – serves as a powerful symbol and makes him a unified figure on a vast movement.
While there is speculation about Yakub’s exact role within the movement, some analysts argue that his appointment to the role in 2020 was merely a sham.
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