Reuters Sources have confirmed that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar will lead the new Afghan governments following the fall of Deposed Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani’s reign into the hands of the Taliban.
Baradar is said to be the co-founder of the group and held the political office of the Taliban. In the top position in new Afghan government set to be formed, he will be joined by Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of late Taliban founder Mullah Omar, and Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, Reuters confirmed in a report.
So, who really is Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar?
Baradar was born into an affluent Pushtun tribe in Souther Afghanistan in Uruzgan province in 1968. He was among those who fought the Soviet Union’s occupation. After the Russians withdrew in 1989 and the country fell into civil war between rival warlords, he started a madrassa in Kandahar together with his former commander, Mohammad Omar, the Key founder of Taliban.
He’s considered an effective strategist who served as Mullah Omar’s deputy and also held the position of Deputy Minister of Defense during the brutal five-year Taliban rule of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
Baradar spent eight years in incarceration, and was released only when the Trump Administration launched talks with the Taliban in 2018.
As Reported by Indian Espress, “He headed the nine-member Taliban team that negotiated with US Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad — they were the two signatories to the Doha Agreement last year, by which the US agreed to withdraw its troops on condition that the Taliban would not shelter Al-Qaeda or ISIS, and would hold negotiations with other Afghans to arrive at a political settlement to end the war.”
After release from Prison, he became Taliban’s chief ambassador.
