Muhammad Rasul | |
---|---|
Supreme Leader of High Council of Afghanistan Islamic Emirate | |
In office 2016–2021 | |
Preceded by | Office established |
Governor of Nimruz Province for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan | |
In office 1996–2001 | |
Succeeded by | Abdul Karim Brahui |
Personal details | |
Born | c. 1965 (age 57–58) Kandahar Province,Kingdom of Afghanistan |
Religion | Islam |
Military service | |
Allegiance |
|
Years of service | 1994–present |
Rank | Marshal |
Battles/wars | War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) Islamic State–Taliban conflict |
Muhammad Rasul was the leader of the High Council of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,a Taliban dissident group in Afghanistan,until the group's dissolution in 2021. [1] He was a Taliban-appointed governor of Nimruz Province,Afghanistan. Rasul exerted pressure and suppression on Pashtun factions unpopular with the Taliban,and made a considerable fortune controlling cross-border drug-smuggling through Nimruz. [2]
Rasul is believed to have been born in the mid-1960s in Kandahar Province,Afghanistan. [3]
Rasul was the Governor for Nimruz Province when the Taliban were in power during the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. He is said to have had close relations with founding Taliban leader Mohammed Omar,and is considered to have been an "old and trusted friend" to him. [4]
Rasul and his functionaries fled Nimroz following U.S. airstrikes on 13 November 2001,and his office was taken over by Abdul Karim Brahui. [5] After the Invasion of Afghanistan,Rasul became the Taliban's shadow governor of Farah Province. [4]
In 2015,Rasul broke away from the main Taliban leadership and established his own group,the High Council of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. [6] The split was a result of disagreement over the ascension of Akhtar Mansour as leader of the Taliban. Rasul's followers accuse Mansour of hijacking the movement due to personal greed. Rasul says that he and his supporters tried to persuade him to step down and let the new leader be chosen by the Taliban council,but Mansour refused. [7] [8]
The High Council was suspected by some to be an Iranian ally,although Iran sided with the Islamic Emirate's leadership against it. [6] [9] They have demanded that foreign troops leave Afghanistan as a precursor for peace talks. [10] Rasul's Taliban group has voiced that neither al-Qaeda,nor the Islamic State are welcome in Afghanistan. [11] The group has also been reported of being supported by Afghan government though both the group and Afghan officials have denied this. [12]
Rasul's faction dissolved peacefully into the main Taliban following the Taliban offensive of 2021,ending its independent existence and turning over all of its military equipment to the Taliban. [13] In January 2022,Muhammad Rasul met with defense minister Mullah Yaqoob in Kabul and stated his support for the new government. [14]
During the Friday prayer on August 16,2019,a powerful blast tore through a grand mosque in Pakistan’s Balochistan province. The attack on the mosque,frequented by Taliban’s leadership,killed the brother and father of Hibatullah Akhundzada. The High Council of Afghanistan Islamic Emirate claimed responsibility for the attack,adding that the prime target was Haibatullah. [15]
Muhammad Umar,known in the West as Mullah Omar,was an Afghan militant who founded the Taliban in 1994. During the Afghan Civil War of 1996–2001,the Taliban fought the Northern Alliance and took control of most of the country,establishing the First Islamic Emirate for which Omar began to serve as Supreme Leader in 1996. Shortly after al-Qaeda carried out the September 11 attacks,the Taliban government was toppled by an American invasion of Afghanistan,prompting Omar to go into hiding. He successfully evaded capture by the American-led coalition before dying in 2013,reportedly from tuberculosis.
Mullah Mohammad Rabbani Akhund was one of the main leaders of the Taliban movement who served as Prime Minister of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. He was second in power only to the supreme leader,Mullah Mohammed Omar,in the Taliban hierarchy.
Nimruz or Nimroz is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan,located in the southwestern part of the country. It lies to the east of the Sistan and Baluchestan Province of Iran and north of Balochistan,Pakistan,also bordering the Afghan provinces of Farah and Helmand. It has a population of about 186,963 people. The province is divided into five districts,encompassing about 649 villages.
Mullah Mansoor Dadullah was Mullah Dadullah's younger half-brother who succeeded him as a senior military commander of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. He came from the Arghandab district of Kandahar province,and belonged to the Kakar Pashtun tribe.
Abdul Qayyum "Zakir",also known by the nom de guerre Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul,is the acting Deputy Minister of Defense of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. He previously served as the acting Defense Minister,from 24 August 2021 to 7 September 2021.
Abdul Karim Brahui is a former politician in Afghanistan. He last served as Governor of Nimroz Province from 2010 to 2012,and before that he served as a minister in the Cabinet of Afghanistan. From February 2009 to August 2010,Brahui served as Minister of Refugees. In 2004,Brahui was appointed as Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs.
Mullah Sher Mohammad Malang was a Taliban governor of Nimruz Province,Afghanistan under the Taliban government. He is a Popalzai. After the Taliban took control in the south in the mid-1990s,he was appointed governor of Nimruz and then later served with the military.
Mullah Ghani served briefly as the Taliban-appointed governor of Nimruz Province,Afghanistan in 1995. Ghani was culturally similar to his predecessor,Hamidullah Niyazmand. Ghani was removed from power when Jamaat forces counter-attacked the capital city of Zaranj later in 1995.
The Mullah Dadullah Front was an insurgent group in Afghanistan that claimed responsibility for a series of bombings and assassinations centered in Kabul.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar was a terrorist organization that split away from Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan in August 2014. The group came to prominence after it claimed responsibility for the 2014 Wagah border suicide attack. In October 2017,there were unconfirmed reports that Omar Khalid Khorasani,the leader of the JuA,had died from injuries sustained in a US drone strike in Paktia Province,Afghanistan. In August 2020,it merged back to TTP.
Akhtar Mohammad Mansour was the second supreme leader of the Taliban. Succeeding the founding leader,Mullah Omar,he was the supreme leader from July 2015 to May 2016,when he was killed in a US drone strike in Balochistan,Pakistan.
The Sacrifice Front,more commonly known as Fidai Mahaz,is a Taliban splinter group and faction in the War in Afghanistan. It is led by Mullah Najibullah,also known as Omar Khitab,a former Taliban commander.
Najibullah,often referred to as Mullah Najibullah or Hajji Najibullah,and also known by the pseudonym Omar Khitab,is the leader of the Taliban splinter group Fidai Mahaz in Afghanistan.
Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada,also spelled Haibatullah Akhunzada,is an Afghan Deobandi Islamic scholar,cleric,and jurist who is the supreme leader of Afghanistan. He has led the Taliban since 2016,and came to power with its victory over U.S.-backed forces in the 2001–2021 war. A highly reclusive figure,he has almost no digital footprint except for an unverified photograph and several audio recordings of speeches.
Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid is an Afghan commander and cleric who is the second deputy leader of Afghanistan and the acting defense minister. He has been a deputy leader of the Taliban since 2016,and was additionally appointed to his ministerial role after the Taliban's victory over Western-backed forces in the 2001–2021 war. He has been the Taliban's military chief since 2020.
The Islamic State–Taliban conflict is an ongoing armed conflict between the Islamic State and the Taliban in Afghanistan. The conflict escalated when militants who were affiliated with Islamic State –Khorasan Province killed Abdul Ghani,a senior Taliban commander in Logar province on 2 February 2015. Since then,the Taliban and IS-KP have engaged in clashes over the control of territory,mostly in eastern Afghanistan,but clashes have also occurred between the Taliban and IS-KP cells which are located in the north-west and south-west.
Abdul Hakim Haqqani,also known as Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai and Abdul Hakim Sharie,is an Afghan Islamic scholar,writer who has served as the chief justice of Afghanistan and minister of justice since 2021. He has also served as chief justice of the Supreme Court in the 1996–2001 Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. He was the chairman of the negotiation team in the Qatar office. He is one of the founding members of the Taliban and was a close associate of the late leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.
The supreme leader of Afghanistan,officially the supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and also styled by his religious title Amir al-Mu'minin,is the absolute ruler,head of state,and national religious leader of Afghanistan,as well as the leader of the Taliban. The supreme leader wields unlimited authority and is the ultimate source of all law.
High Council of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (HCIEA) (Pashto:دٙاَفغانِستاناِسلامياِمارَتعاليشوریٰ,romanized: DəAfġānistān IslāmīImārat ĀlīŠūrā ;Dari:شُورٰایِعٰالئِاِمٰارَتِاِسلٰامئِاَفغٰانِستٰان,romanized: Šūrā-yi Ālī-yi Imārat-i Islāmī-yi Afġānistān) was a breakaway Taliban faction active in Afghanistan since 2015. The faction broke away from the Taliban in 2015 following the appointment of Akhtar Mansour as the leader of the Taliban and elected Muhammad Rasul as its leader. The faction was involved in deadly clashes with mainstream Taliban in southern and western Afghanistan,leaving scores of dead on both sides. The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan allegedly provided financial and military support to the faction,however,both the Islamic Republic and the faction denied this. Following the Taliban offensive of 2021 and the fall of Afghanistan to Taliban forces,the group dissolved,and its leaders pledged allegiance to the new government.
Mullah Abdul Manan Niazi was an Afghan politician and military commander. In the 1990s,he was the governor of the Herat and Balkh provinces. He was one of the famous commanders of the splinter group of the Taliban led by Mullah Rasool,and one of the opponents of the Taliban group led by Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada. He had many times managed the bloody conflicts between these two groups. He was also a critic of the policy of regional countries,especially Iran and Pakistan,towards Afghanistan.
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: CS1 maint: others (link)Niazi echoed the Taliban's core leadership when it came to peace talks: No discussions should occur unless all U.S. and foreign troops depart the country.
'They are our brothers; [but] we will not let them in [Afghanistan] nor will we agree with them in this country.'