Meet Mullah Baradar, the head of the Taliban’s political office who will be leading the new government of Afghanistan. Read to know about him and the new government.
Who is Mullah Baradar?
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar currently heads the Taliban’s political office. According to reports Baradar, along with Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai and Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob will take up senior positions of the new Afghan government. “All the top leaders have arrived in Kabul, where preparations are in final stages to announce the new government,” stated a Taliban official. In a televised statement after the fall of the previous government, he said that their real test was just starting. Moreover, he added that they had to serve the country.
Baradar was born in Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province in 1968. He was a part of the Aghan mujahideen and fought the Soviets in the 1980s. Moreover, he set up a madrasa in Kanhahar along with Mohammad Omar, after the Soviets withdrew. They then founded the Taliban. Their movement, spearheaded by young Islamic scholars is dedicated to ‘religious purification’ and the creation of an emirate.
Additionally, he is one of the most known faces of the group. Recently, he has been in the news for overseeing the signing of troop withdrawal agreements with the US. Previously, Baradar held talks with Hamid Karzai, the ex-president, and Abdullah Abdullah the former CEO and chairperson of the reconciliation panel. The series of talks discussed peaceful power transitions.
What else do we know about the newly formed Afghan government?
“Baradar’s return to power embodies Afghanistan’s inability to escape the bloody shackles of its past. The story of his adult life is the story of the country’s unceasing, pitiless conflict,” reports Julian Borger, the World affairs editor at The Guardian.
However, there is little clarity on the new regime of Afghanistan. However, Mohammad Naeem, a spokesperson from the group told that the Taliban “did not want to live in isolation and called for peaceful international relations.”