BIOGRAPHY

Mullah Abdul Ghani Beradar Akhund was born in the year 1963 in the Dehrawood district of the southern province, Uruzgan. He is a Popalzai Pashtun, belonging to the Durrani tribe. His real name is Abdul Ghani, and because he was a close friend of Mullah Mohammad Omar Mujahid, he was given the title of "Beradar". Beradar Akhund studied in different Madrassas, but the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the struggle against it did not allow him to complete his education.

As a young man, Beradar Akhund became friends with Mullah Mohammad Omar Mujahid, and with him, he started jihad against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s. They started jihad with Yunus Khalis as members of Harakat in Kandahar. When civil war broke out between the Mujahideen in Afghanistan and the jihadist leaders destroyed the country's villages and towns over their position, Mullah Beradar Akhund, along with three others, founded the Islamic Emirate in the year 1994.

The Islamic Emirate took control of almost the entire territory of Afghanistan in two years, in 1996, and they brought an end to the former parties and factions in the country. During the rule of the Islamic Emirate, Mullah Abdul Ghani Beradar served in various capacities from 1996 to 2001, among which the governance of Herat and Nimroz provinces are mentionable. When the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001, Mullah Abdul Ghani Beradar Akhund was the Deputy Minister of Defense. After the US occupation of Afghanistan, he was appointed as a member of the Leadership Council of the Islamic Emirate and deputy to Mullah Mohammad Omar Mujahid. The US and Pakistani intelligence agencies arrested and imprisoned Beradar Akhund in Karachi in the year 2010.

He had only a few public statements before his imprisonment, one of which was his interview with Newsweek Weekly. "The main condition for peace is the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan," he responded to a question from Newsweek about peace. Beradar Akhund was released from a Pakistani prison in 2018 after serving more than nine years in prison and was given the responsibility of leading peace talks in Qatar. When he arrived in Qatar, he was appointed as head of the Taliban's political office in Doha. After two years of meetings and negotiations with the United States, Mullah Beradar Akhund was able to sign the Doha Agreement on behalf of the Islamic Emirate in the year 2020. The main condition of the agreement was that all foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan.

After that, peace talks with the Kabul administration began. During the talks, the Taliban officials led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Beradar travelled to a number of countries. He met with Iranian Foreign Minister Jawad Zarif in Tehran in January 2021, and discussed with him the establishment of a stable government in Afghanistan. He also met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in July of that year. Three days after the fall of Kabul, on August 18, 2021, Mullah Beradar Akhund arrived in Kandahar with some senior Taliban officials. He then came to Kabul on August 23. In September 2021, Beradar Akhund appeared on Times Magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People of the 21st Century. With the formation of the Cabinet of the Islamic Emirate, Mullah Abdul Ghani Beradar Akhund was appointed as the first Deputy Prime Minister. In addition to that, he is also responsible for the Economic Commission of the Islamic Emirate and the High Commission for Disaster Management.