This would mean that current “emir ul momineen” – Akhunzada, who is “leader of the faithful” – will naturally take the supreme post.īut the Taliban are far from monolithic, and even the emir will not enjoy absolute obedience.
Since he has shown himself more pragmatic than many expected, analysts say, allowing negotiations with the US and repeatedly exhorting low-level Taliban fighters and officials to seek to win over communities through good governance and discipline.Īs the Taliban have long shown their contempt for democracy, it appears likely they will annul Afghanistan’s 2004 constitution and declare an “emirate” in place of the current republic. His tribal background, reputation as a scholar and the respect commanded by his erudition were all advantages. Known for his personal austerity, Akhunzada was a compromise candidate when promoted to “emir” over the heads of dozens of other better-known leaders by the Taliban’s supreme leadership council in 2016. He also taught the most complex and prestigious texts in religious schools. In recent decades, Akhunzada has been the Taliban’s top religious judge, resolving thorny issues such as the legitimacy of suicide attacks, or whether it is right to fight the Islamic State as the group sought to establish a presence in Afghanistan.
He also studied in religious schools in Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan, was the primary religious “adviser” of mullah Omar, and eventually reached the status of sheikh ul-hadith as an outstanding scholar. During the 1980s, Akhunzada fought the Soviets and their local auxiliaries near his home with brigades of young religious students and clerics which later formed the nucleus of the Taliban. Like most of the Taliban’s senior leaders, he is Pashtun, Afghanistan’s largest ethnic community and one which has historically claimed the right to rule the country. The task facing the new de facto head of state is vastly more challenging and complex.īut who will this ruler be? The most likely candidate is the current supreme leader of the Taliban, Haibatullah Akhundzada, a 60-year-old Islamic legal scholar who took over when his predecessor, Akhtar Mansour, was killed in a US drone strike near the Afghan-Pakistan border in 2016.Īkhunzada grew up in Panjwai, a district just outside Kandahar. The rest of the country has changed immensely too. Since the Taliban were ousted by a US-led military coalition after the 9/11 attacks of 2001, Afghanistan’s capital has been transformed into a bustling, crowded, traffic-choked metropolis of 5 million.
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