Akhundzada is the unlikely ‘friendly face’ of the Taliban as it takes power in Afghanistan after the collapse of the trillion-dollar US occupation. He was appointed supreme leader in 2016 after the assassination of his predecessor in a US drone attack. Since the 20-odd years of Western occupation foundered on the fierce Afghan determination to resist all outside interference –dating back to the 19th century when the British military got its nose continually bloodied on what was then called ‘the Northwest frontier’ – he now bears the title Leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
Akhundzada comes with a fundamentalist pedigree, which he earned studying in the madrassas of Quetta in Pakistan where his Pashtun family had taken refuge after fleeing their home in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, in the wake of the Soviet invasion of 1979. While his military experience is minimal (unlike previous Taliban chiefs Mohamed Omar and Akhtar Mansour), he is most respected in fundamentalist circles for his grasp of Sharia law and the issuing of fatwa rulings while presiding over the Islamic court system in the country. He is said to be modest and retiring in his demeanour but is a champion of suicide bombing to which he sacrificed his own son, who blew himself up in Helmand Province with his father’s blessing. He also supported the assassination campaign against Afghan civil society that targeted media figures and women activists.
