The Story of Haibatullah Akhundzada's Rise to the Highest Position of the Taliban Movement

Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada's rise to the highest position in the Afghan Taliban movement was not expected, although he was one of the founding members of the movement and was a close friend to its founder, Mullah Muhammad Omar.

According to the available information about Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of the "Taliban" movement, he was more interested in judicial and religious issues than war until the assassination of his predecessor Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, who was killed by an American drone strike in Pakistan, in May 22, 2016.

Haibatullah Akhundzada assumed leadership of the Taliban, in a rapid and swift transfer of power within the movement. 

According to the Press French agency, Haibatullah Akhundzada enjoys great influence within the rebellion movement in which he led the judiciary.

The newspaper quoted analysts confirming that Haibatullah Akhundzada's presence at the head of the "Taliban" is more symbolic than practical.

Despite this vision, the agency believes that Haibatullah Akhundzada managed to achieve the unity of the group, which was torn by a violent struggle for power after the death of Mullah Mansour. His media appearance tended to be conservative, he contented with broadcasting rare annual messages on Islamic holidays.

According to the BBC website, he fought against the Soviet and US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan and served as head of a military court in Kabul under the rule of the late Taliban founder and spiritual leader Mullah Omar.

 

Biography

According to the official website of the "Taliban" movement, Akhundzada was born on October 19, 1967, in the Bajway district of Kandahar province, Afghanistan. He belongs to the powerful Pashtun tribe in Kandahar.

Akhundzadeh participated in the battles against the pro-Russian Afghan government led by Muhammad Nur Tarqi, which came to power in April 1978, according to the official biography published by the movement. He eventually fled Afghanistan to neighboring Pakistan, where he settled in the Jungle Bir Alizai refugee camp in the border province of Balochistan.

He spent the late 1980s fighting Russian forces and teaching the "Mujahideen" while fighting against the Soviets in Afghanistan, according to the Taliban.

In 1996, former Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar appointed him head of a military court in Kabul. According to the Taliban's official biography, Akhundzada succeeded in "restoring law and order" in the country, and his implementation of the religious legislations played a major role in this regard.

Following the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Akhundzada played an "active and leading" role in "reviving and organizing jihad" against the United States and the coalition forces in the war in Afghanistan, according to the movement.

On July 30, 2005, Akhundzada was appointed deputy to the group's new leader, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, after confirming the death of its founder and spiritual leader Mullah Muhammad Omar.

On May 22, 2016, the leader of the Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Muhamad Mansour, was killed in a US drone strike, near the city of Quetta in Balochistan province, southwest Pakistan on the Afghan border.

According to the US Department of Defense, Mansour was targeted while traveling in a convoy near the town of Ahmad Wal in an operation involving several drones.

The Afghan intelligence also confirmed the killing of Mansour in a statement, saying: "Mansour was closely monitored for some time. Until he was targeted with other fighters when they were on board the cars carrying them."

 

Controversies Over Akhundzada

Immediately after the announcement of Akhundzada's appointment as the leader of the movement, he pledged allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of the "Al-Qaeda" organization (classified as a terrorist organization). Akhundzada called al-Zawahiri "the Commander of the Faithful", which helped him prove his credibility among the jihadists.

While the Afghan privately-owned Shamshad TV reported in September of 2016, that a dissident military group led by Maulvi Naqibullah Honar declared jihad against the Taliban after appointing Akhundzada as its leader, accusing him of taking this position by order of the Pakistani intelligence.

On March 24, 2017, the terrorist organization "ISIS" published a propaganda video entitled "At the Gates of Epic Battles", in which it described Akhundzada as a "Taliban tyrant".

 

Agreement With America

The administration of former US President Donald Trump and the Taliban movement, under the leadership of Akhundzadeh, signed a "historic" agreement in the Qatari capital, Doha, in February 2020, including the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan within 14 days. In exchange for the Taliban's commitment not to allow al-Qaeda or any other extremist group to operate in the areas they control.

In this agreement, America also agreed to lift the sanctions imposed on the “Taliban” and work with the United Nations to lift separate sanctions against the movement, reduce the number of its forces in the country from about 12,000 to 8,600 and close many bases, and Akhundzadeh described the agreement as a “big victory.” for the group.

Before this "historic" agreement and also under the leadership of Akhundzada, the "Taliban" movement agreed on June 9, 2018, to a temporary ceasefire with the Afghan government, after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced earlier a ceasefire with the armed group.

 

Symbolic Role

Like Mullah Omar, Akhundzadeh traces his origins to an Afghan cleric from the province of Kandahar, the heart of the Pashtun state in southern Afghanistan and the cradle of the Taliban.

Before his appointment as the leader of the Taliban, little was known about him, but he was more knowledgeable in judicial and religious matters than in the art of war.

In the 1990s, he assured the task of developing the group's "Sharia law" in Afghanistan before joining the movement's governing body in the first decade of the 21st century.

While this researcher had great influence in the Taliban and led the judiciary, some analysts believe that his role at the head of the movement is more symbolic than practical.

Indeed, Akhundzada's delicate task was to unite the Taliban, which had been driven by a fierce struggle for power after the death of Mullah Mansour. He managed and succeeded in maintaining the movement’s unity.