Two months since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the group’s leader Haibatullah Akhundzada had finally made his first public appearance, putting to rest rumours that he had died.
Taliban sources told Reuters that Akhundzada visited the Jamia Darul Aloom Hakimia religious school in the city. The Taliban released a message saying Akhundzada had spoken with soldiers and disciples at the school, along with an audio recording in which he prays for the group’s “martyrs” and for the people of Afghanistan, who he said had fought against the “infidels and oppression” for 20 years.
Akhundzada’s public absence, with the last known photo of him dating to 2016 (when the Taliban published it on Twitter), led to speculation that he had died. Reports of a rift within the Taliban’s top leadership added to these doubts, as Akhundzada is ostensibly the most powerful person within the Taliban as its “Amirul Momineed” (Commander of the faithful). However, he has yet to be formally declared emir of the newly-formed Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
He was appointed the Taliban’s leader after his predecessor Mansour Akhtar was killed by a US drone strike in 2016. Even then he was a low-profile cleric, yet beat out Sirajuddin Haqqani (then the Taliban’s day-to-day operations leader) and Mullah Muhammad Yaqoub (son of the late Taliban founder Mullah Omar) for the top post.
A former judge in the group’s military court, Akhundzada was responsible for issuing most of the Taliban’s fatwas. He is believed to be in his 50s.
