One of the Taliban extremist Sunni movement founders, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund, has arrived in the Afghan capital, Kabul, to consult with other Taliban leaders about forming a government.
The Taliban took power in Afghanistan a week ago and are currently presenting themselves as more moderate than their ideology and years of bloody terror suggest. They want to form a government together with other parties. Baradar is regarded as the top man of the Taliban and is seen as the emir of the new ’emirate of Afghanistan’.
Baradar comes from the province of Uruzgan and, together with his childhood friend Mohammed Omar (1960-2013), was one of the founders of the Taliban, which Omar led. Baradar was detained by Pakistani and US security forces in 2010 but was released in 2018 at Washington’s urging. He subsequently made a name for himself as a diplomat for the Taliban. Baradar, the brother, is actually a nickname of his.
One of the Taliban leaders talking about the new government squad is Khalil Haqqani. We want him as the leader of a terrorist organization, the Haqqani Network. This has proven to be the best trained and armed part of the Taliban in combat and, according to observers, is a criminal terrorist group from the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The network is now in charge of security in Kabul.