9th September, 2021
Taliban supreme leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, who sacrificed his son as a suicide bomber, will lead the new government in Afghanistan, spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said.
The new Afghanistan government will be called the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”.
Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada will be the ultimate authority over the group’s political, religious, and military affairs.
He has been performing the role since 2016.
In the new cabinet announced by the Taliban earlier this week, Mullah Hassan Akhundzada was declared as the Acting Prime Minister.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was appointed as his deputy in the “new Islamic government”.
Hibatullah Akhundzada joined the Taliban during the 1990s.
He got his first major government role in 1995 after the group captured the Farah province of Afghanistan.
He was given the responsibility of bringing down the crime graph.
He was later given a position in the military court of the Taliban in Kandahar.
Thereafter, he was elevated as the chief of the military court in the Nangarhar province during the Taliban’s previous rule.
When the US-backed forces ousted the Taliban from power in 2001, Hibatullah Akhundzada had risen to the rank of deputy chief in the group’s supreme court.
During the Taliban’s exile after 2001, Hibatullah Akhundzada became the head of their council of religious leaders.
In 2015, the then Taliban chief Mullah Mansour appointed Hibatullah Akhundzada his deputy in the group’s hierarchy.
Officially, he was one of the three deputies but Mullah Mansour, in his will, named Hibatullah Akhundzada as his successor.
He became the Taliban’s supreme leader the next year.
Hibatullah Akhundzada gained more respect from and control over the Taliban from mid-2017, when his 23-year-old son led a suicide bombing.
His son Abdur Rahman alias Hafiz Khalid had enrolled as a suicide bomber before Akhundzada became the Taliban chief.
But even after he became the boss, he did not pull out his son from the suicide bombing squad.
His son died in the terror attack.