Shahzada was from Mira Khor, a small village in the Maywand district of Kandahar Province, southern Afghanistan.
[6] According to a human rights organisations, he was the commander of Khinjan front, north of Kabul, and was allegedly responsible for the execution of 31 civilian detainees near the Rabatak Pass in May 2000.
[7][8] The following year, in January 2001, following the Taliban recapture of Yakawlang in Bamyan province from the United Front, the U.N. alleged he was involved in the killing of several hundred civilians, including a U.N staff member and a number of aid agency workers.
He was later transferred to Guantanamo Bay detention camp, arriving on 15 June 2002, where he was given the Internment Serial Number (ISN) 367.
[13] Gul Agha Sherzai, the post-Taliban governor of Kandahar, has said that Afghan offers of help in identifying known Talibans, which might have shown Shahzada's cover story to be false, were repeatedly rejected.
[15] The New York Times reported that after his return to fighting, he was responsible for the operations that killed at least thirteen people, including two aid workers.
They placed him in the Arghandab district, near Kandahar, where he met with the leader of the Taliban, Mohammed Omar, ten days before his death.