Public executions and stoning: who is Haibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of the Taliban who will rule Afghanistan at gunpoint

After the seizure of power by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the world is waiting for the form its government will take. On Wednesday, one of the group’s spokespersons, Waheedullah Hashimi, told the agency Reuters that the country could be governed by a council, while the supreme leader of the militant Islamist movement, Haibatullah Akhundzada, he will probably remain in control.

Another aspect that Hashimi clarified is that the country it won’t be a democracy. “There will be no democratic system because it has no base in our country,” he said. “We are not going to discuss what kind of political system we should apply in Afghanistan because it is clear. it’s sharia (Islamic law) and that’s it ”.

The power structure described by the spokesperson would have similarities to how the Taliban ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001. Thus, the Supreme Leader, Mullah Omar, has remained in the shadows and left the daily management of the country in the hands of a council.

Akhundzada would likely play a role above the head of the council, which would be similar to that of the country’s president, Hashimi added. “Maybe his deputy (Akhundzada) will play the role of ‘president’,” said Hashimi, who spoke in English.

The Taliban’s supreme leader has three deputies: Mawlavi Yaqub, son of Mullah Omar; Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of the powerful Haqqani militant network, and Abdul Ghani Baradar, who heads the Taliban political bureau in Doha and is one of the group’s founding members.

What do we know about Akhundzada

Eliba Haibatullah Akhundzada He was appointed leader of the Taliban in May 2016 during a rapid transition to power, a few days after the death of his predecessor, Mansur, killed by drone attack American in Pakistan.

Son of theologian, originally from Kandahar, heart of the Pashtun country in southern Afghanistan and birthplace of the Taliban, Akhundzada belongs to the Noorzai tribe and his name in Arabic means “gift from God”.

The leader quickly obtained a Ayman al-Zawahiri’s pledge of allegiance, the leader of Al Qaeda. The Egyptian called him “Emir al muminin”, that is to say “prince of the believers”, name which allowed him to establish his credibility in the jihadist world.

Akhundzada had the delicate mission of unify the Talibandivided by a fierce power struggle after Mansur’s death and the revelation that they had hidden for years the death of the founder of the movement, Mullah Omar.

The insurgent managed to keep the group united and continued to be quite discreet, limited to transmitting annual messages Islamic holidays.

The leader of the Taliban fought against soviet troops who invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to support the Communist government in its fight against other factions and joined the Taliban during the bloody civil war which happened at the end of the Soviet occupation in 1989. However, its role has always been more focused on judicial and religious issues than military.

During the first Taliban government (1996-2001), led by Mullah Omar, Akhundzada held the positions of Vice-President of the Supreme Court of Afghanistan and Chief Justice of the Supreme Military Court.

When the United States led the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, following the September 11 attacks, Akhundzada fled to Pakistan, like many Taliban leaders and became head of the group’s council of religious scholars.

It is believed that there he ran a religious school or madrasa near the city of Quetta. He is also claimed to have close ties to a prominent Taliban group based in the Pakistani city.

Akhundzada is a scholar pure and hard religious of Kandahar, making it unlikely that the group’s leadership will change. Akhundzada is the one who published most of the fatwas (religious edicts) promulgated by the jihadists and is at the head of the Council of the “Shura”, composed of about thirty members, the highest body of the group since May 2016.

In its judicial decisions, sanctioned such as public executions of murderers, stoning of women considered to be “adulterers” and amputations of the hands and feet of those guilty of theft.

According to The Washington Post, since becoming the leader of the Taliban, Akhundzada has worked for strengthen the group’s finances, in part through drug trafficking.

Pending the definition of the structure of the Taliban government, Akhundzada already ordered on Wednesday the release of “political prisoners”, as the movement that already controls the country tweeted. “From tomorrow, all provincial governors must release all political prisoners, regardless of their size, without restrictions or conditions, and hand them over to their families,” the statement read in Arabic.

What the Taliban regime looked like 20 years ago

When in power, the Taliban (religious students) imposed strict Islamic law that games, music, photography and television prohibited. Thieves have had their hands cut off, murderers have been executed in public and homosexuals have been killed.

They denied women the right to work or even to go out on the streets without being accompanied by a relative. Girls’ schools have been closed. Women accused of adultery were whipped and stoned to death. They were also forced to wear the burqa, that veil that covers from head to toe and covers the eyes with a mesh.

Men were required to wear long beards, attend prayers under pain of flogging, and wear traditional clothing, the shalwar kameez. The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Suppression of Vice reigned in terror, with squads roaming the streets to enforce its harsh laws.