Taliban leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada is reportedly in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan. According to local Ariana News, Akhundzada has been in Kandahar for four days.
Citing sources close to Akhundzada, the report said the insurgents’ chief met with the top Taliban figures in Kandahar about the future of Afghanistan and the new government to be established in the war-weary country.
Earlier, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the Taliban leader would appear in public soon.
After the Taliban seized the capital Kabul, some of the group’s leaders in Qatar went to Kandahar.
WHO IS AKHUNDZADA?
Akhundzada was appointed as the Taliban chief on May 25, 2016 after his predecessor Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US drone attack.
He taught religion and preached in a village near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan for 15 years until he disappeared in May 2016.
There is only one widely circulated photograph of Akhundzada released by the Taliban. He previously served as the chief judge of the group’s judicial system.
The Taliban seized control of most of Afghanistan after lightning advances that included the capital, Kabul, on Aug. 15, forcing former President Ashraf Ghani and top officials to leave the country.
Compounding the already-escalating international crisis, two suicide bombers detonated bombs outside the Kabul airport on Thursday, killing at least 170 people.
The ISIS-K terrorist group, the Afghan affiliate of Daesh/ISIS, claimed responsibility for the attack.
