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 group has confirmed.
“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.
Akhundzada has shepherded the Taliban as its chief since 2016 when snatched from relative obscurity to oversee a movement in crisis. The cleric was tasked with the mammoth challenge of unifying a movement that briefly fractured during a bitter power struggle.
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. Apart from a single photograph released by the Taliban, the leader has never made a public appearance and his whereabouts remain largely unknown.
Since taking control of Kabul in mid-August, the group has remained tight-lipped about Akhundzada’s movements. He has yet to issue any kind of statement since the Taliban swept to power and took control of Afghanistan in mid-August.
The ongoing silence comes as the heads of various Taliban factions have openly preached in Kabul’s mosques, met with opposition figures, and even chatted with Afghan cricket officials in recent days.
The Taliban have a long history of keeping their top leader in the shadows. The group’s enigmatic founder Mullah Muhammad Umar was known for his hermit ways and rarely travelled to Kabul when the group was in power in the 1990s.
He 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 epicentre of the Taliban’s iron-fisted government in the 1990s.
