Political Militant Islam portal Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada,[b] also spelled Haibatullah Akhunzada,[c] is an Afghan cleric who is the supreme leader of Afghanistan in the internationally unrecognized Taliban regime.

In 2019, Akhundzada appointed Abdul Ghani Baradar to lead peace talks with the U.S., which led to the 2020 signing of the Doha Agreement that cleared the way for the full withdrawal of United States troops from Afghanistan.

[23] In the early 1990s, as the Islamist insurgency was gaining ground in Afghanistan following the Soviet occupation, Akhundzada went back to his village in Kandahar Province.

[16] On 16 August 2019, Akhundzada's younger brother, Hafiz Ahmadullah, was killed along with at least three other persons in a bomb blast during Friday prayer at the Khair Ul Madaris mosque in Kuchlak, Quetta, Pakistan.

[24][25] Officials of the ousted Afghan government, as well as some Western analysts, believed that Akhundzada was killed along with his brother in the bomb blast in Quetta.

[22] He later moved to Kandahar where he was an instructor at the Jihadi Madrasa, a seminary that Taliban founding leader Mohammed Omar looked after.

He was the most visible face of the Taliban's top leadership, as Mansour mostly stayed out of public view and did not openly attend meetings for security reasons, and the other deputy, Sirajuddin Haqqani, was mostly involved in military affairs.

[22] Two leading contenders for the role were Sirajuddin Haqqani, Mansour's other deputy, and Mullah Yaqoob, the son of founding leader Mohammad Omar.

[34] Yousef Ahmadi, the Taliban's main spokesmen for southern Afghanistan, said that Akhundzada's younger son Abdur Rahman Khalid had died carrying out a suicide attack on an Afghan military base in Girishk in Helmand Province in July 2017.

[35] In 2019, under the leadership of Akhundzada, Taliban won the Battle of Darzab by defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's Khorasan branch.

[21] During the Friday prayer on 16 August 2019, a powerful blast tore through the Khair Ul Madaris mosque in Kuchlak, Quetta, Pakistan, killing Akhundzada's brother Hafiz Ahmadullah and their father.

[39] "It was a timed device planted under the wooden chair of the prayer leader," said Abdul Razzaq Cheema, the Quetta police chief.

[40] The High Council of Afghanistan Islamic Emirate, a breakaway faction of the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack, adding that the prime target was Akhundzada.

[41] On 18 May 2024, the Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF) insurgency group released a statement claiming that they carried out an assassination attempt against Azhundzada near the Shah-Do Shamshira Mosque in Kabul while he was visiting the city.

[43] In August 2021, forces under his nominal command began a general offensive seeking to achieve a final victory in the war.

[28] On 18 August, it was announced that based on the general amnesty issued by Akhundzada, "it was decided to release political detainees from all prisons of Afghanistan".

[49] On 8 December 2021, Akhundzada issued instructions to provincial governors to convince individuals not to leave the country and try to address their grievances while also increasing security measures.

[50] On 14 March 2022, Akhundzada issued directives consisting of 14 points to the Armed Forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan concerning the conduct of its personnel.

He also ordered a ban on foreign broadcasts from being issued in Afghanistan, and instructed the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice to enforce gender segregation of public parks, prevent women from boarding aircraft if unaccompanied by a male chaperone, to bar male civil servants from going to work if they are not wearing a turban or sporting a full beard, and ban the use of mobile phones in universities.

[53] On 3 April 2022, Akhundzada signed a decree banning the cultivation of opium in Afghanistan, with any violators being treated "according to sharia law."

It stated that “It is not permissible to make false accusations against officials or to criticize them...”[57][58] On 14 November 2022, he issued orders to the judiciary to fully enforce Hudud and Qisas (corporal) punishments if crimes meet such standards.

The charges highlight severe restrictions imposed on Afghan females, encompassing bans on education, employment, and public participation.

[62] In September 2021, it was revealed that Akhundzada had not been seen in public since the Taliban seized control of Kabul the previous month, giving rise to speculation that he might be dead, and that his decrees were being drafted by a committee.

[63][64] On 30 October 2021, Taliban officials said Akhundzada made a public appearance at the Darul Uloom Hakimah madrassa in Kandahar.

No photos or videos were released, but a ten-minute audio recording was shared by Taliban social media accounts,[65] which might have eased rumours of his death.

"[16] On 30 April 2022, Akhundzada made a rare appearance at the Eidgah mosque in Kandahar on the last day of Ramadan and delivered a brief sermon, while keeping his back turned to the crowd.

Expressing his shock, a worshipper named Aziz Ahmad Ahmadi said, “I cried when I heard the voice of Sheikh Saheb [Akhundzada].

[74] In his address on July 1, 2022 to the Great Gathering of Ulema in Kabul, he explained that his vision is based on the Amir al-Mu’minin as an embodiment of virtue, the mosque, and the administration working in tandem to enforce Sharia.

He also oversaw the implementation of tighter media restrictions, banning the use of mobile phones in post-secondary education and foreign language broadcasts.