Abdul Ghani Baradar: The Face of the Taliban Returns to Afghanistan
Abdul Ghani Baradar signed the peace agreement with the United States in 2020. Now he is making a victorious return to Kabul. The Islamists' political chief is seen as a possible new ruler of Afghanistan.
Olivia Miller 
Kabul. If you look at the Taliban's leadership, you can't avoid one name: Abdul Ghani Baradar. He is the political chief and the public face of the Islamists. According to media reports, he is currently on his way to Kabul to help the Taliban form a government. Rumor has it that he may even become Afghanistan's new president. He landed in Kandahar on Tuesday afternoon, according to local media.
He is the highest-ranking Islamist official to arrive in Afghanistan so far. It is unknown where Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada is. According to intelligence circles, Baradar is to be given a post similar to a prime minister ("Sadr-e Asam") and will preside over all ministers. But who is the man at the top, really?
Baradar was born in 1968 in an Afghan village in the Uruzgan region. He fought for the mujahideen in the war against the Soviets. After the Soviet withdrawal in 1994, he ran a madrassa in southern Afghanistan and co-founded the Taliban with Mohammed Omar.
Defense Minister of the Taliban
Baradar has a reputation as a successful strategist, both militarily and politically. In 1996, the Islamists captured Kabul and went on to conquer other cities and provinces in the following years. Baradar may have been largely responsible for the military successes. During Taliban rule, he was governor of several regions. Interpol even referred to him as the Taliban's defense minister.
After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, he fled to Pakistan, as did many Taliban, and from there led the Quetta Shura-the Taliban's new leadership in exile. On Feb. 8, 2010, with the help of the CIA, Baradar was captured by Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency, though he was released in 2018 under U.S. pressure, so he could participate in peace negotiations in Qatar. In 2020, he signed an agreement with the United States in Doha that initiated the American withdrawal. In return, the Taliban assured him they no longer posed a terror threat. (ma)
Full name: Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar
September 21, 2013 / Pakistan frees top Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar
In 2018, the Trump administration requested that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar be released from prison: https://t.co/WZwBsRFZXv
Trump also helped free 5,000 Taliban fighters, many of whom are likely now helping take over Kabul. pic.twitter.com/IamIHqLi5d — No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) August 15, 2021
