Abdul Ghani Baradar

Abdul Ghani Baradar (born c. 1968?, Yatīmak, Uruzgān province, Afghanistan) is an Islamic militant and a founding member of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan. After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, he grew increasingly central to the group’s operation, and by 2009 he was often characterized in the press as the movement’s de facto leader. After the 2021 takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, he became deputy prime minister (2021– ) of its transitional government.

Early involvement in the Taliban

Baradar began his military career as a guerrilla fighter in the Afghan War (1978–92), where he fought in a unit of the mujahideen that also included Mohammad Omar and others who would later become founding members of the Taliban. As the war died down, members of the unit found opportunity in religious education (see madrasah) in Maywand district (near the city of Kandahār). But postwar Afghanistan was far from peaceful as the new Afghan government struggled to assert control outside of Kabul. Extortion, kidnapping, and assault all became commonplace as militias and warlords overran much of the country. Along with dozens of others involved in the local madrasahs, Omar, Baradar, and other members of their former unit took up arms against a local warlord in 1994 and began to pacify the area. As the band mobilized support and expanded beyond Maywand, it became known as the Taliban (Pashto: Ṭālebān [“Students”]) because of its association with madrasah students. From the start of the movement, Baradar was one of its most prominent and successful guerrilla commanders.

Quickly gaining control over most of Afghanistan, the Taliban seized Kabul in 1996 and overthrew the government. The Taliban set up a council of ministers to govern civil affairs, and Baradar held a number of junior posts, including deputy minister of defense and deputy chief of army staff. Following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, Baradar led the Taliban resistance in northern Afghanistan. He was reportedly captured in November by the Northern Alliance, a group of Afghan militias opposed to the Taliban, but released after a brief period. He eventually joined other senior members of the Taliban, who had fled to the area around Quetta, Pakistan.

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Leadership in the Taliban resurgence

Baradar took a central role in coordinating between factions and organizing an insurgency during this time. While Omar remained secluded and inaccessible, Baradar held audiences with both Taliban leaders and common Pashtun civilians and even communicated with the press. He dictated military strategy and managed funding through the so-called Quetta Shūrā. After another senior commander, Dadullah, was killed in 2007, Baradar was unrivaled as the strongman in the Taliban’s command structure and was named Omar’s deputy.

Both influential and pragmatic, Baradar became an ideal candidate for leading peace negotiations. In early 2010 it was reported that Baradar was conducting indirect negotiations with the Afghan government through the brother of Pres. Hamid Karzai. In February, however, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) arrested Baradar in the city of Karachi. Afghan officials pressed for his release in 2013, although the agreement ultimately fell through. He was finally released in late 2018 after pressure from the United States intensified.

In January 2019 the Taliban announced that Baradar would join its negotiating team in Doha, Qatar, which had been discussing a peace agreement with the United States for several months. A deal was reached in February 2020 in which the United States agreed to withdraw from Afghanistan on the condition that the Taliban refrain from attacking U.S. forces and prevent Afghanistan from being used to threaten the security of the United States. The arrangement also prompted negotiations with the Afghan government but did not condition the withdrawal of U.S. forces on reaching an agreement. In May 2021, as talks with the government stalled and the U.S. withdrawal entered its final phases, the Taliban launched an offensive that overwhelmed Afghan forces. By mid-August it had captured Kabul and most of the country. When a transitional government was announced in September, Baradar was named deputy prime minister.