Afghanistan-Pakistan conflict: Who are the key leaders of Taliban?

Amid rising tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the neighbours traded airstrikes, with Islamabad targeting Kabul and the Taliban conducting an attack on a military base near Pak capital on Friday (Feb 27). As the situation sharpens regional security concerns, attention has turned to the leadership of the Taliban, which returned to power in August 2021 under Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, the movement’s ultimate authority.

Here are the key leaders of the Taliban:

Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada is the Supreme Leader or Leader of the Faithful of the Taliban government in Afghanistan. He became the supreme commander of the Taliban in May 2016 and is believed to be in his 60s. A religious scholar and former Sharia court chief, he joined anti-Soviet resistance in the 1980s. He served as the head of the Sharia Courts in the 1990s. His whereabouts are unknown.

Mullah Hassan Akhund, the Prime Minister of Afghanistan, is one of the four men who founded the Taliban in 1994. The longtime head of the Taliban’s leadership council, or Rehbari Shura, he previously served as foreign minister and deputy prime minister during the Taliban’s rule in 1996-2001. He remains under UN sanctions for his earlier role in the government.

One of the co-founders of the Taliban, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, was a key member of the insurgency after the Taliban government was dethroned by the US-led invasion in 2001. In February 2010, he was captured in a joint US-Pakistan operation in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi. He served eight years in prison before he was released as part of a peace plan. In 2020, Baradar became the first Taliban leader to directly speak with US President Donald Trump in a phone call. The head of political office in Qatar since January 2019, he signed the Doha agreement, after which the US troops withdrew from Afghanistan.

Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi is the most senior ethnic Uzbek within the Taliban leadership. In the 1990s, he served as deputy education minister during the Taliban’s first rule. Between 2019 and 2021, he played a prominent role in the group’s Doha negotiations and was deputy head of its political office in Qatar. He remains under sanctions by the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Nations.

Mawlawi Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid is a senior Taliban leader serving as the Minister of Defence for Afghanistan since September 7, 2021. He is the eldest son of Mullah Mohammad Omar, the founding leader of the Taliban, and holds a key role in the second generation of Taliban leadership.

Mawlawi Sirajuddin Haqqani serves as interior minister in the Taliban government, overseeing Afghanistan’s police and specialised security units, reportedly numbering more than 230,000 personnel. He also leads the Haqqani Network, a position he inherited after the death of his father, Mawlawi Jalaluddin Haqqani, a key figure in the movement.

Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi is the Foreign Minister of the Taliban-led Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, holding the position since September 2021. A veteran Taliban leader, he previously served in various ministerial roles during the 1996 - 2001 regime and was a key negotiator in the Doha office that negotiated the US withdrawal.