Afghan Taliban: What is Their Chain Of Command?

KABUL: (Web Desk) What is the Taliban’s chain of command has always been a mystery. Even during their rule from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban hierarchy remained covert.

Now as the Taliban have successfully taken over Kabul last weekend what is known about them so far is as follows:

Haibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader

Haibatullah Akhundzada was appointed leader of the Taliban in a swift power transition after a US drone strike killed his predecessor Mullah Mansour Akhtar in 2016.

After assuming power as Taliban leader, Akhundzada secured a pledge of loyalty from Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri who called him “the emir of the faithful.”

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Mullah Baradar, the co-founder

Abdul Ghani Baradar was raised in Kandahar – the birthplace of the Taliban movement.

He was believed to have fought side by side with the one-eyed cleric Mullah Omar. The two would go on to found the movement in the early 1990s.

Arrested in Pakistan in 2010, Baradar was kept in custody until pressure from the US saw him freed in 2018 and relocated to Qatar where he oversaw the deal of the troop withdrawal agreement with the United States.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Haqqani Network

The son of a famed commander from the anti-Soviet Jihad, Sirajuddin Haqqani doubles as the deputy leader of the Taliban and head of the powerful Haqqani network.

The Haqqani network is a US-designated terror group long viewed as one of the most dangerous militant factions in Afghanistan.

Mullah Yaqoob, the scion

The son of Taliban co-founder Mullah Omar, Mullah Yaqoob heads the group’s powerful military commission, which oversaw the vast network of field commanders charged with executing the insurgency.

Due to his father’s cult-like status, Mullah Yaqoob becomes a unifying figure in the movement. However, speculations remain that his appointment in 2020 was merely cosmetic.