One of the founding members of the Taliban arrived in Kabul for talks with the group’s senior leadership on the formation of the new government of Afghanistan. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is amongst the top figures in the Taliban. In 1996, during the first ‘Islamic Emirate’ of Afghanistan, Baradar was the right-hand man of Taliban leader Mohammad Omar.

Baradar was captured jointly by the ISI and CIA in 2010 and was released eight years later and sent to Qatar in 2018 on U.S. ‘requests’. Baradar was a militant in the U.S.-backed ‘mujahideen’ fighting against Soviet troops in the 1980s.

He returned to Afghanistan after twenty years since the fall of the first Taliban government in 2001. Baradar has been involved in high-level talks with the United States and the previous administration of Afghanistan. He negotiated the 2020 ‘peace deal between the Taliban and the United States as well.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was slated to meet important leaders such as commanders, the ousted government’s officials, policy-makers, and religious scholars, according to media reports that quoted a Taliban official.