Who is the main leader of the Taliban in Afghanistan? | Taliban News

The Taliban have been fighting the Western-backed Afghan government in Kabul since they stepped down in 2001.

It initially attracted members of the so-called “jihadist” fighters, who repelled the Soviet army in the 1980s with the support of the United States.

The organization emerged as one of the factions fighting the civil war in 1994 and continued to control most of the country when Sharia or Sharia law was implemented in 1996.

Opponents and Western countries accuse it of brutally enforcing its version of Islamic law and suppressing religious minorities.

Its founder and original leader was Mullah Mohamed Omar, who went into hiding after the Taliban was overthrown by local troops backed by the United States after the attack on the United States on September 11, 2001.

Omar’s whereabouts are so secretive that he died in 2013 and was only confirmed by his son two years later.

The Taliban once again rose to the military in Afghanistan.

Since the start of the withdrawal of foreign troops, it has occupied most of the country’s territory and now controls the capitals of 10 of the 34 provinces.

These are some of the key figures in the movement:

Haibatura Ahunzada

The Islamic legal scholar, known as the “loyal leader”, is the supreme leader of the Taliban and has the ultimate power over the political, religious and military affairs of the Taliban.

Ahunzada is believed to be about 60 years old [File: Social Media via Reuters]

In 2016, his predecessor, Akhtar Mansour, was killed in a U.S. drone strike near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, and Ahunzada took over.

For 15 years, before disappearing suddenly in May 2016, Akhunzada taught and preached at a mosque in the town of Kuchlak in southwestern Pakistan, colleagues and students told Reuters.

He is believed to be about 60 years old and his whereabouts are unknown.

Mullah Mohamed Yakoub

Yaqoob is the son of Taliban founder Mullah Omar and is responsible for overseeing the organization’s military operations. Local media reported that he was in Afghanistan.

In various succession disputes, he was proposed as the general leader of the movement.

But according to a Taliban commander at the meeting to elect Mansour’s successor, he proposed Ahhunzada in 2016 because he felt he lacked battlefield experience and was too young.

Yaqoob is believed to be in his early 30s.

Sirajadine Haqqani

As the son of the famous jihadist commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, Sirajadin leads the Haqqani Network, a loosely organized organization responsible for overseeing the financial and military assets of the Taliban on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border .

The FBI’s wanted poster for Sirajadine Haqqani [File: FBI/Handout via Reuters]

Some experts believe that the Haqqani introduced suicide bombing attacks to Afghanistan and were blamed on several high-profile attacks in Afghanistan, including attacks on top hotels in Kabul and assassination of then-President Hamid Karzai And the suicide attack in Afghanistan. Embassy of India.

It is believed that Haqqani is in his 40s or 50s. His whereabouts are unknown.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradal

As one of the Taliban’s co-founders, Baradal is now the head of the Taliban’s political office and a member of the organization’s negotiating team in Doha, which is trying to finalize a possible ceasefire and more. The political agreement for a lasting peace in Afghanistan.

In recent months, no significant progress has been made in this process.

Baradar is the head of the Taliban’s political office in Doha, Qatar [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]

According to reports, Baradar is one of Mullah Omar’s most trusted commanders. He was captured by security forces in Karachi, Pakistan in 2010, and released in 2018.

Sher Mohamed Abbas Stenikzai

The former Deputy Minister of the Taliban Government, Stanik Zai, had lived in Doha for nearly ten years before the Taliban was removed, and in 2015 he became the head of the organization’s political office there.

He participated in negotiations with the Afghan government and visited many countries on behalf of the Taliban.

Abdul Hakim Haqqani

He is the leader of the Taliban negotiating team. The former shadow chief justice of the Taliban leads a powerful committee of religious scholars, and it is widely believed that he is the most trusted person in Ahhunzada.