Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar has arrived in the capital city of Kabul to lead talks for government formation in Afghanistan, AFP reported. "He will be in Kabul to meet jihadi leaders and politicians for an inclusive government set-up," the report said citing a senior Taliban official.
It is understood that the Haqqani network, a Taliban faction, is likely to play a key role in the new government formation. On Wednesday, the network's leader Anas Haqqani held preliminary talks with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai for government formation. The US branded the Haqqani network a terrorist group in 2012, and its involvement in a future government could trigger international sanctions.
Baradar returned to Afghanistan after almost 20 years earlier this week, as the insurgents became the undisputed winners in the two-decade-long battle with the US and NATO forces. The senior leader is the most public face of the Taliban and ousted from Afghanistan in 2001, had arrived to a rousing welcome in Kandahar, where he grew up and the birthplace of the Taliban.
With his return, Baradar was expected to play a key role in negotiations between the Taliban and officials from the Afghan government that the militant group deposed in its blitz across the country.
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Baradar heads the political office of the insurgent group and is part of the negotiating team that the group has in Doha. He, reported to have been one of the trusted commanders of Taliban founder Mullah Omar, was captured in 2010 by security forces in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi and released in 2018.
The Taliban say they seek an “inclusive, Islamic” government and claim they have become more moderate since they last held power. But many remain skeptical, and all eyes are now on Baradar, who has said little about how the group will govern but has proven pragmatic in the past.
Baradar, who is in his early 50s, was born in the southern Uruzgan province. Like others who would eventually become Taliban leaders, he joined the ranks of the CIA- and Pakistan-backed mujahideen to fight against the Soviet Union during its decade-long occupation of the country that ended in 1989.