Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Taliban's Second Man, Returns to Kandahar
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A Taliban spokesman said that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar returned to Afghanistan from Qatar with a high-level delegation.
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Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar
Taliban deputy leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar arrived Tuesday at Kandahar, the former Taliban capital, two days after the movement he co-founded took control of the entire country.
A Taliban spokesman said Baradar "arrived this afternoon at our beloved country," accompanied by a high-level delegation returning from Qatar.
Who is Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar?
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is a 53-year-old, Oruzgan-born, Kandahar-raised co-founder of the Taliban. He co-founded the movement with Mullah Omar, who died in 2013, but his death was only made public in 2015.
In 2001, following the US invasion of Afghanistan and the Taliban's collapse, it was alleged that Baradar was part of a small group of insurgents who proposed a deal in which they recognized the Kabul administration. However, that deal never saw the light of day.
Baradar was the Taliban's military commander when he was arrested in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2010. He was later released in 2018 under United States pressure.
The Mullah has the respect of the many Taliban factions that are under his command, and he was later appointed as head of the Taliban's political bureau in Qatar.
He led negotiations with the United States, which saw foreign forces withdrawing from Afghanistan. He also led sterile peace talks with the Afghan forces.
This is the first time that the Afghan leader publicly came to his home country since the movement he co-founded collapsed in 2001 at the hands of the United States forces, following the 9/11 attacks.
