Taliban co-founder ‘Baradar the Butcher’ poised to lead Afghanistan government

A feared Taliban boss described as “cunning and dangerous” by terrorism experts is expected to be officially appointed the leader of Afghanistan within days.

Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is poised to lead a new Afghan government set to be announced soon. Picture: AFP.

Exiled Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar – formerly known as “Baradar the Butcher” – is poised to lead the new government in Afghanistan.

The announcement of a new administration was earlier expected to be made after Friday afternoon prayers but has now formally been delayed at least another day.

Baradar, who is currently in charge of the Taliban’s political office, is set to be joined by Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of late Taliban co-founder Mullah Omar, and Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, in senior government positions, Reuters reports.

The Taliban’s supreme religious leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, will also focus on religious matters and how to govern within the framework of Islam, a source told the media outlet.

Baradar started the Taliban in 1994 with late supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.

He then became known for developing some of the Islamic militants’ most deadly tactics, including planting “flowers” – improvised explosive devices – along roadsides and has been described by terrorism experts as even more cunning and dangerous than Omar, according to a 2010 profile in the Times of London.

Baradar, whose brutal history attracted the moniker “Baradar the Butcher”, arrived in Kabul two weeks ago to start talks about the new government.

Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is poised to lead a new Afghan government set to be announced soon. Picture: AFP.

A vendor selling posters of Taliban leaders Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar (R) and Amir Khan Muttaqi, waits for customers along a street in Kabul on August 27, 2021. Picture: Aamir Qureshi / AFP.

“All the top leaders have arrived in Kabul, where preparations are in final stages to announce the new government,” a Taliban official said.

The Taliban confirmed Baradar had returned to his “beloved country,” which he fled soon after the US invasion in 2001. He was later captured in Pakistan, moving to Qatar after his release in 2018.

Footage released by the Taliban-affiliated Al Hijrat TV shows helpers forming a barricade with their arms to protect him from dozens of wellwishers screaming support and punching the air in triumph.

More were waiting outside, with other footage showing a mass of cheering supporters mobbing his convoy with cries of “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great.”

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar arrived in Kandahar, Afghanistan on August 21, 2021. Picture: AFP.

Baradar received a hero’s welcome upon his return to Afghanistan this month. Picture: AFP / Al Hijrat TV.

The Taliban are due to form a government – set to include 25 ministries and a consultative council of 12 Muslim scholars – within days. That’s despite fighting in Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley Friday where forces battling the hard line Islamists say they are enduring “heavy” assaults.

The Taliban face the enormous challenge of shifting gears from insurgent group to governing power, days after the United States fully withdrew its troops and ended two decades of war.

But they are still battling to extinguish the last flame of resistance in the Panjshir Valley – which held out for a decade against the Soviet Union’s occupation and also the Taliban’s first rule from 1996-2001.

Fighters from the National Resistance Front – made up of anti-Taliban militia and former Afghan security forces – are understood to have significant weapon stockpiles in the valley, which lies around 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Kabul.

But on Friday pro-Taliban Twitter accounts aired video clips purporting to show the new regime’s fighters had captured tanks and other heavy military equipment inside the valley.

The claims could not be independently verified.

While the West has adopted a wait-and-see approach to the group, there were some signs of engagement with the new leaders gathering pace.

China confirmed a tweet from a Taliban spokesman hours earlier, indicating that Beijing will keep its embassy in Kabul open.

“We hope the Taliban will establish an open and inclusive political structure, pursue moderate and stable domestic and foreign policy and make a clean break with all terrorist groups,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.

The United Nations said it had restarted humanitarian flights to parts of the country, linking the Pakistani capital Islamabad with Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan and Kandahar in the south.

The country’s flag carrier Ariana Afghan Airlines resumed domestic flights on Friday, while the United Arab Emirates sent a plane carrying “urgent medical and food aid”.

Western Union and Moneygram, meanwhile, said they were restarting money transfers, which many Afghans rely on from relatives abroad to survive, and Qatar said it was working to reopen the airport in Kabul – a lifeline for aid.

– With AFP

Originally published as Taliban co-founder ‘Baradar the Butcher’ poised to lead Afghanistan government