Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, 60, is set to take over as Afghanistan’s supreme authority, weeks after the Taliban took control of the trouble-torn country. The new government, according to reports, is going to be fashioned on the Iranian formula, where the supreme leader is the highest political and religious authority of the country. 

Akhundzada, as the supreme leader, will rank above the president and will be the appointing authority of the military, the government, and the judiciary. The supreme leader will also have the final say in the political, religious and military affairs of the country.

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Mullah Akhunzada took over as the top religious leader of the Taliban after his predecessor, Akhtar Mansour, was killed in a US drone strike near the Afghan-Pakistan border in 2016. 

Born and raised in the Panjwai district near Kandahar, Akhundzada’s family moved to the Balochistan province of Pakistan after the Soviet invasion. He has received all his education from madrassas or religious schools, first in Afghanistan and then Pakistan.

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In the 80s, Akhundzada joined the fight against the Soviets as part of the ‘Islamist resistance’. He slowly rose through the ranks to become the religious ‘adviser’ of Taliban founder Mullah Mohammed Omar. He then was made the sheikh ul-hadith or outstanding religious scholar and mawlawi — most senior religious titles.

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Seen more as a scholar than a fighter, Akhundzada’s association with the Taliban began in the 90s when the terror group took over Afghanistan’s Farah province. Akhundzada was made in-charge of law and order.He then rose to head a military court in the Nangarhar province.

Akhundzada, known to keep a low profile, was named the head of the militant group’s council of religious scholars after the Taliban was overthrown after the US-led coalition invaded Afghanistan in 2001. He would often release statements of days of religious importance.