Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar will lead a new Afghan government which will be announced soon, news agency Reuters reported. Baradar, who heads the Taliban's political office, will be joined by Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of late Taliban co-founder Mullah Omar, and Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, in senior positions in the government, according to the report. In an Iranian model of governance, Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban's supreme religious leader, could focus on religious matters and governance within the framework of Islam.
There are interesting revelations on the structure of the administration. The interim government would consist 25 ministries, with a consultative council, or shura, of 12 Muslim scholars. A loya jirga, or grand assembly, bringing together elders and representatives across Afghan society to discuss a constitution and the structure of the future government, Reuters quoted Taliban sources.
Who is Baradar?
Baradar is the only surviving Taliban leader to have been personally appointed deputy by Mullah Omar.
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 decadelong occupation of the country that ended in 1989. He then joined the Taliban to wage war against the corrupt warlords who divided the country amongst themselves.
Baradar fought alongside Mullah Omar as he led the Taliban through its seizure of power in 1996 and its return to an insurgency following the 2001 US-led invasion.
The US invaded Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, which had been planned and carried out by Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida while it was sheltering under Taliban rule. Baradar, Omar and other Taliban leaders fled into neighboring Pakistan.
In the ensuing years, the Taliban were able to organize a potent insurgency based in rugged and semi-autonomous tribal areas along the border. Baradar was arrested in Pakistan’s southern city of Karachi in 2010 in a joint raid by the CIA and Pakistan’s counterterrorism forces.
At the time, he had been making peace overtures to Afghanistan’s then-President Hamid Karzai, but the US was bent on military victory and it appeared that Pakistan wanted to ensure control over any political process. Baradar’s removal empowered more radical leaders within the Taliban who were less open to diplomacy.
