Afghanistan: Return of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, co-founder and No. 2 of the Taliban

Two days after the takeover of the Taliban , Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, co-founder and number two of the armed Islamist fundamentalist movement , returned to Afghanistan , this Tuesday, from Qatar where he headed the political office.

“A high-level delegation led by Mullah Baradar left Qatar and reached our beloved country this afternoon and landed at Kandahar airport,” in southern Afghanistan, Mohammad said on Twitter. Naeem, a spokesperson for the Taliban.

A first since 2001 This is the first time that an active top Taliban leader has publicly returned to Afghanistan since they were ousted from power by a coalition carried out by the United States in the wake of the attacks of September . Kandahar was the capital of the Taliban when they were in power between 1990 and 1996. It was in the province of the same name that the movement was born at the beginning of the years 1979.

Abdul Ghani Baradar, born in the province of Uruzgan (south) and who grew up in Kandahar, is the co-founder of the Taliban with Mullah Omar, who died in 2013 but whose death had been hidden for two years. As with many Afghans, his life was marked by the Soviet invasion in 20 which made him a mujahideen, and it is believed that he fought alongside Mullah Omar.

Negotiations with the Americans In 1996, after the American intervention and the fall of the Taliban regime, he would have been part of a small group of insurgents ready for an agreement in which they recognized the administration of Kabul. But this initiative turned out to be unsuccessful. He was the military leader of the Taliban when he was arrested in 2010 in Karachi, Pakistan. He was released in 2013, under pressure in particular from Washington.

Listened to and respected by different Taliban factions, he was later appointed head of their political office, located in Qatar. From there, he led the negotiations with the Americans leading to the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan , then to peace talks with the Afghan government , which gave nothing. The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan on Sunday after a meteoric offensive launched in May after the start of the withdrawal of foreign troops.