BIOGRAPHY

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund was born in 1963 in the Dehrawood district of Uruzgan province. He is a Popalzai Pashtun of the Durrani tribe. His birth name is Abdul Ghani, but he earned the title "Baradar" due to his close friendship with Mullah Mohammad Omar Mujahid. Baradar Akhund pursued his studies in various madrassas; however, the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the subsequent struggle against it interrupted his education.

As a young man, Baradar Akhund forged a strong friendship with Mullah Mohammad Omar Mujahid, and together they waged jihad against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. They initially joined forces with Yunus Khalis as members of Harakat in Kandahar. When the civil war erupted among the Mujahideen factions, devastating villages and towns across Afghanistan, Mullah Baradar Akhund, along with three others, founded the Islamic Emirate in 1994.

By 1996, the Islamic Emirate had gained control of nearly all of Afghanistan, effectively ending the influence of former parties and factions. During the Emirate's rule from 1996 to 2001, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar held various significant positions, including governance of Herat and Nimroz provinces. At the time of the US invasion in 2001, he served as the Deputy Minister of Defense. Following the US occupation, Baradar Akhund was appointed to the Leadership Council of the Islamic Emirate and became the deputy to Mullah Mohammad Omar Mujahid. In 2010, he was arrested and imprisoned in Karachi by US and Pakistani intelligence agencies.

Before his imprisonment, Baradar Akhund made only a few public statements, one notable instance being an interview with Newsweek Weekly where he asserted, "The main condition for peace is the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan." After spending over nine years in a Pakistani prison, he was released in 2018 and tasked with leading peace talks in Qatar. Upon his arrival in Qatar, he was appointed head of the Taliban's political office in Doha. Following two years of negotiations, Mullah Baradar Akhund signed the Doha Agreement on behalf of the Islamic Emirate in 2020, which stipulated the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan.

Subsequent to the Doha Agreement, peace talks with the Kabul administration commenced. During these negotiations, Mullah Baradar Akhund and other Taliban officials traveled to several countries. In January 2021, he met with Iranian Foreign Minister Jawad Zarif in Tehran to discuss establishing a stable government in Afghanistan. He also met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in July 2021. Following the fall of Kabul, Mullah Baradar Akhund arrived in Kandahar on August 18, 2021, with senior Taliban officials and later moved to Kabul on August 23. In September 2021, he was named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of the 21st Century.

With the formation of the new Cabinet of the Islamic Emirate, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund was appointed the First Deputy Prime Minister. Currently, he is the Deputy PM for Economic Affairs and also oversees the Economic Commission of the Islamic Emirate and the High Commission for Disaster Management.