For
the first time on Tuesday, the world saw a leader who had only ever
spoken to western media by phone, although they knew his name well.
"Slowly,
gradually, the world will see all our leaders, there will be no shadow
of secrecy," the senior Taliban official told Reuters on Wednesday.
It
comes amid claims by Taliban spokesmen - they are all men - that there
will be no reprisals, women's rights (under Islamic law) will be
respected, terrorists will not be able to operate from Afghan soil and
law and order will be maintained.
But who is in the inner circle of the new Taliban's leadership?
Sheikh Hibatullah Akhundzada
The
group's supreme commander, designate Emir and commander of the
faithful, has yet to be seen in public since the Taliban swept to power
in Kabul.
A former member of the mujahideen
resisting the Soviet invasion, Akhundzada became one of the earliest
members of the Taliban in 1994 and held several offices during its
period in power - especially in guiding its religious direction and
promotion of "virtue".
After the US invasion in
2001, he became the chief justice in the organisation's Sharia courts
and an advisor to Mullah Omar, the Taliban's founder.
He
is reported to have remained in Afghanistan throughout the group's
period out of power and settled many disputes in the group with fatwas,
until, after the killing of the group's second leader Mullah Mansour by a
US drone strike in 2016, he was appointed leader, but he may also have
been active in Pakistan.
Among the last times he was
heard from was in May, at Eid al Fitr, when he spoke through a Taliban
spokesman, according to Pakistan's Tribune newspaper, to urge Afghans to
come together for the "redevelopment of our homeland" and promised an
"Afghan-inclusive Islamic system", without the risk of rights being
violated.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar
Baradar
has been a key figure in the negotiations that led up to the deal with
the Trump administration that prompted the US pullout, paving the way
for the Taliban advance.
Seen meeting officials in
Doha, China and Moscow, the Taliban's deputy commander of the faithful
and apparent political leader was only able to do so because he was
freed from prison in Pakistan in 2018 - shortly after Mr Trump's
Afghanistan envoy Zalmay Khalilzad visited Islamabad - having been in
jail since 2010.
His role as negotiator is expected
to continue as the Taliban says it seeks an "inclusive, Islamic"
government, but many remain sceptical, considering his past.
One
of the co-founders of the movement, Baradar is the only surviving
Taliban leader to have been personally appointed deputy by Mullah Omar,
giving him near-legendary status among the faithful.
On
Tuesday, he landed in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban movement,
ending 20 years of exile, having previously fled into neighbouring
Pakistan after the US-led invasion in 2001.
During
the group's 1996-2001 rule, he did not have an official government role
but fought alongside Omar as he led the Taliban to seize power in 1996
and during the insurgency in later years.
Zabihullah Mujahid
The Taliban's main spokesman after
the fall of Kabul, who set up a news conference from the presidential
palace in the aftermath of the takeover, is the public face of the group
attempting to present a moderate image.
Many journalists who had
communicated with him on a phone or via other mediums over the years
were shocked to finally see the man they had been dealing with.
For
years, he had been a shadowy figure issuing statements on behalf of the
militants but he pledged insurgents sought no revenge and that
"everyone is forgiven".
Suhail Shaheen
Shaheen is another spokesman attempting to convey the more "inclusive" approach being adopted by the group.
Speaking
to Sky News, he said "thousands" of schools were continuing to operate,
the militants were "committed to women's rights, to education, to work
and to freedom of speech, in the light of our Islamic rules".
The
former editor of the English-language, state-owned Kabul Times during
the Taliban's period of rule after 1996, before being appointed the
Emirate's deputy ambassador in Pakistan, Shaheen was included among the
group's delegates to peace conferences in Moscow.
Anas Haqqani
Anas is another member of the negotiating team in Doha who has been active since the fall of Kabul, meeting with former president Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, a senior official in the ousted government, with the aims of brokering eventual negotiations with Mullah Baradar.
His brother is Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani network, an insurgent Taliban sub group that used guerrilla warfare to fight against US-led NATO forces.
Sirajuddin Haqqani
The leader of the Haqqani network, who took over from his father Jalaluddin Haqqani when he died some time between 2016 and 2018.
As the proclaimed deputy leader of the Taliban, he had previously overseen armed combat against American and coalition forces, reportedly from a base within North Waziristan in Pakistan.
He is wanted by the FBI in connection with the January 2008 attack on a hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed six people, including an American citizen, and planning an assassination attempt on then Afghan president Hamid Karzai in 2008.
He wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times in 2020, outlining what the Taliban sought from it negotiations with the Trump administration, saying it offered an "inclusive political system in which the voice of every Afghan is reflected", but in March this year he was heard in a broadcast speech lauding his followers' performance on the battlefield, which he said would "crush the arrogance of the rebellious emperors of the world".
So far, he has not yet been seen.
Khairullah Khairkhwa
Concerns have been raised
about the possibility that Khairkhwa may have a major role in a
forthcoming Taliban-led administration, as the former Guantanamo
detainee has been accused of drug trafficking and of being a close
associate of al Qaeda members, under Osama bin Laden, something he
denies.
The Taliban's former governor of Herat was
released from the US detainment camp in Cuba, along with four other
senior Taliban members, in late May 2014, as part of a prisoner exchange
that involved US abductee Bowe Bergdahl.
Khairkhwa
is another in the negotiating team in Doha and, according to the New
York Post, played a key role in driving forward the Taliban's strategy
while in exile.
Mohammed Fazl
Perhaps
the most infamous figure in the group of five released from Guantanamo
in 2014 is Mohammad Fazl, a front-line commander who was the Taliban's
deputy defence minister.
Human Rights Watch said he
should have been prosecuted for his role in a massacre of more than 170
civilians in Afghanistan in January 2001, as well as other serious
crimes.
They also allege he had overall operational
command during a Taliban offensive to recapture the northeast Afghan
town of Khwagaghar, also in January 2001, where more than 30 civilians
were summarily executed, and was in charge when troops torched villages
in the Shomali valley north of Kabul in 1999, summarily executing
civilians in their path.
Source: https://news.sky.com/story/afghanistan-whos-who-in-the-new-talibans...
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