KABUL — The Taliban's supreme leader Hibatullah
Akhundzada — who has never made a public appearance and whose whereabouts have
largely remained unknown — is in Afghanistan, the hardline Islamist group
confirmed on Sunday.
اضافة اعلان
"He is present in Kandahar. He has been living there
from the very beginning," said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
"He will soon appear in public," added deputy
spokesman Bilal Karimi.
The so-called commander of the faithful, Akhundzada has
shepherded the
Taliban as its chief since 2016 when snatched from relative
obscurity to oversee a movement in crisis.
Little is still known about Akhundzada's day-to-day role,
with his public profile largely limited to the release of annual messages
during Islamic holidays.
He has yet to issue any kind of statement since the Taliban
swept to power and took control of Afghanistan in mid-August.
The Taliban have a long history of keeping their top leader
in the shadows.
The group's enigmatic founder Mullah Mohammad Omar was
notorious for his hermit ways and rarely travelled to Kabul when the group was
in power in the 1990s.
Instead, Omar stayed largely out of sight in his compound in
Kandahar, reluctant even to meet visiting delegations.
Kandahar was the birthplace of the militant movement and the
epicenter of the Taliban's iron-fisted Islamist government in the 1990s.
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