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Haibatullah Akhunzada

Haibatullah Akhunzada (1961-) was the Supreme Leader of the Taliban from 25 May 2016, succeeding Mullah Akhtar Mansoor. Akhunzada had previously served as deputy leader of the Taliban under Mansoor, and he took over the Taliban after Mansoor was killed in a US Air Force drone strike on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Unlike his hardline predecessor, he was more of a moderate, instructing his fighters not to target public institutions or to harm innocent people, and he said that he was open to peace talks as long as foreign troops left Afghanistan. He allegedly died of COVID-19 in June 2020, but he released an audio recording on 18 July 2021 calling for a political settlement with the Afghan government amid a major Taliban offensive.

Biography[]

Haibatullah Akhunzada was born in Kandahar ProvinceAfghanistan in 1961 to a family of Sunni Muslim Pashtuns from the Noorzai clan, and he became a maulavi. In 1996, he became the Chief Justice of the Sharia Courts of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, becoming a reputed religious leader, more than just a warlord or commander. Although he had close ties with the Quetta Shura in Pakistan, Akhunzada had no travel record during the 2001-2016 period, and it appeared as if he had stayed in Afghanistan the whole time, not fleeing to Pakistan like other leaders. In 2015, he was appointed the deputy leader of the Taliban under Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, and it was alleged that he had taken command of the Taliban on 31 July 2015 after Mansoor was said to have been killed in a fight with other shura leaders in Quetta; both the Foreign Ministry of Pakistan and the Taliban leadership denied this claim. On 25 May 2016, after Mansoor was confirmed to have been killed in a US Air Force airstrike on the Afghan-Pakistan border, Akhunzada was proclaimed the new leader of the Taliban, with Sirajuddin Haqqani and Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob (Mohammed Omar's son) serving as his deputies.

Akhunzada was perceived as a moderate by the Afghan government and NATO, and hopes of peace talks seemed realistic. He instructed his followers not to target public institutions and not to oppress the people, and Akhunzada stated that the Taliban and mujahideen sought only to force foreign forces out of Afghanistan, and he was open to peace negotiations with the government. On 1 June 2020, anonymous sources from the Taliban leadership claimed that Hibatullah had died of COVID-19; several leaders of the Taliban in Quetta had fallen ill with the disease, including Sirajuddin Haqqani. However, the Taliban leadership denied that Hibatullah had died, claiming that he had recovered and was still overseeing his normal duties. In February 2021, Zabiullah Mujahid denied claims that Akhundzada had been killed in an explosion at a safehouse in Quetta. On 18 July 2021, Akhundzada's survival was seemingly confirmed when he released an audio message in which he claimed to strenuously favor a political settlement to the escalating conflict and find a stable solution to the issue.

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