Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada will be the Taliban’s Supreme Leader under whom a prime minister or president will run Afghanistan, the hardliners have confirmed. Anamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, reportedly said that Akhundzada will also be the leader of the new government. Afghanistan has been thrown open to a crisis after the Taliban swept most provinces to swiftly take over Kabul, the country’s capital and the last major city to fall to the offensive that began months ago but accelerated as the hardline Islamists gained control of territories and the US troops began retreating.
ALSO READ | ‘Country Boys With Code of Honour’: UK Army Chief Says Taliban Could be Different This Time, Must ‘Wait & See’
Waheedullah Hashimi, who has access to the group’s decision-making, told news agency Reuters earlier that Taliban may form a ruling council and reach out to former pilots and soldiers from the Afghan armed forces to join its ranks. The power structure that Hashimi outlined would bear similarities to how Afghanistan was run the last time the Taliban were in power from 1996 to 2001.
“Haibatullah Akhundzada, would likely remain in overall charge,” Hashimi told Reuters.
Who is Haibatullah Akhundzada
Known as the “Leader of the Faithful”, Akhundzada is the Taliban’s supreme leader who holds final authority over the group’s political, religious, and military affairs.
The Islamic legal scholar took over when his predecessor, Akhtar Mansour, was killed in a U.S. drone strike near the Afghan-Pakistan border in 2016. For 15 years, until his sudden disappearance in May, 2016, Akhundzada taught and preached at a mosque in Kuchlak, a town in southwestern Pakistan, associates and students have told Reuters.
The Taliban leader from Kandahar is believed to be 60-year-old.
Akhundzada’s religious views are known to be hardline and he is unlikely to change the group’s direction.
He is likely to leave the day-to-day governing to Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the movement’s current second-in-command, and others and remain more or less in the shadows, reports said.
Akhundzada was unanimously appointed by senior Taliban figures reportedly somewhere near Quetta in Pakistan. He is popular across the rank-and-file of fighters.
He served as a deputy to previous Taliban chief Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, who was killed in a US drone strike on May 21. Mansour named him as successor in his will, Taliban sources had told news agency AFP, in attempt to ‘legitimise the transfer’.
In the 1980s, he was involved in the Islamist resistance against the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan, however, he remained of a religious leader than a military commander.
Mullah Akhundzada has been a senior figure in the Taliban courts for years and has reportedly issued rulings in support of Islamic punishments – such as public executions of convicted murderers and adulterers and amputations of those found guilty of theft.
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Assembly Elections Live Updates here.
Comments
0 comment