Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund is a U.N.-designated founding member of the Taliban. On September 7, 2021, Akhund was named the prime minister of the Taliban government. Akhund has primarily been a religious figure rather than a political or military leader and is seen as a compromise between more radical and moderate members of the Taliban. On May 17, 2023, Akhund temporarily stepped down from office due to illness. His duties as acting prime minister were transferred to the U.N. designated Abdul Kabir Mohammad Jan (a.k.a. Abdul Kabir), the current deputy prime minister for political affairs.
Akhund was a close associate and political advisor to Mullah Mohammed Omar, the founder of the Taliban and the movement’s first supreme leader. Unlike other Taliban leaders, Akhund was not a part of the mujahadeen that fought against Soviet forces in the Soviet-Afghan war of the 1980s. Instead, Akhund took on a role that primarily provided religious guidance to Taliban leaders, often espousing the denial of civil rights and liberties for ethnic and religious minorities. He also encouraged the banning of women’s education, gender segregation, and strict religious dress that was heavily enforced by the Taliban in the 1990s.
From 1996 to 2001, Akhund allegedly served a variety of roles in the Taliban regime, including first deputy of the Council of Ministers, foreign minister, and governor of Kandahar. According to media reports, Akhund was a hot-tempered foreign minister, and in March 1998, he allegedly struck a U.N. staffer with a teapot during a diplomatic meeting. The United Nations subsequently withdrew its staff from Kandahar, and suspended humanitarian activities in the south of Afghanistan, leading the Taliban to depose Akhund from his role.
For the next two decades after the Taliban’s fall from power in 2001, Akhund maintained a low-profile, choosing to help coordinate and run the Taliban’s leadership council in Quetta, Pakistan. While in Pakistan, Akhund provided spiritual and religious guidance to the Taliban, offering ideological justification for the Taliban’s insurgency against the U.S. and the western backed government in Afghanistan. Given Akhund’s multiple roles within the Taliban’s regime, the United Nations Security Council sanctioned Akhund on January 25, 2001.
In 2001, while serving in the Taliban’s shura council, Akhund approved the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan—a UNESCO world heritage site. According to media sources, instead of providing Afghanistan with necessary humanitarian aid, the United Nations had allocated money to preserve the statues—a move that greatly incensed the shura council.
On August 6, 2021, the Taliban began an offensive against major Afghan cities with the seizure of Zaranj, capital of Nimruz province. By August 13, the Taliban controlled 17 of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals and more than two-thirds of the country. On August 15, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled Afghanistan and thousands of Afghans poured into Kabul’s airport as Taliban fighters entered the city. By August 16, the Taliban laid siege to the presidential palace and took complete control of Kabul, after which the Taliban declared the war in Afghanistan had ended. The Taliban has claimed that it would take on a more “moderate” approach in their ruling of the country, and that women are allowed to have roles in public life in observance of “Islamic law.”
On September 7, 2021, the Taliban announced the official appointments within their caretaker government. Akhund was named prime minister, where he will look after the day to day of governing. The government is exclusively male, with many positions filled with veterans from their hardline movement in the early nineties.
On September 12, 2021, Akhund met with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani in Kabul. Al-Thani allegedly called upon the country’s new government to “involve all Afghan parties in national reconciliation.” Additionally, al-Thani spoke with Akhund to discuss “concerted efforts to combat terrorist organizations.”
Akuhund was scarcely in the spotlight for the next few years. However, on May 17, 2023, Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, announced that Abdul Kabir, the U.N. designated and current deputy prime minister for political affairs, will temporarily fulfill the duties of prime minister of the Taliban government. Akhund is reportedly unwell and is undergoing treatment. In 2001, Kabir served as the acting prime minister for the Taliban government right before the collapse of the group’s first reign. During his tenure with the Taliban, Kabir has plotted deadly bombings, facilitated drug trafficking, and even took part in the peace negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban in 2020.
History Timeline
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Baa_fmEIT-V2E-sLiyQp3p_mBNDv6grz-Y_Qg5reZFE/pubhtml