Obaidullah Akhund

Mullah Obaidullah Akhund
عبيدالله آخوند
Akhund, c. 1990s–2000s
Second Deputy Leader of the Taliban
In office May 2002 – February 2007 Serving with Abdul Ghani Baradar
Supreme Leader	Mullah Omar
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Akhtar Mansour
Minister of Defense
In office 15 April 1997 – 9 September 2001 Disputed with Ahmad Shah Massoud
Prime Minister	Mohammad Rabbani Abdul Kabir (acting)
Preceded by	Ahmad Shah Massoud
Succeeded by	Mohammad Qasim Fahim
Personal details
Born	c. 1968 Panjwai, Kandahar Province, Kingdom of Afghanistan
Died	5 March 2010(2010-03-05) (aged 41–42) Karachi, Pakistan
Party	Taliban
Occupation	Politician insurgent commander
Tribe	Alakozai
Military service
Allegiance	Mujahideen (1980s–1992) Taliban (1994–2010)
Years of service	1994–2010
Rank	Commander
Battles/wars	Afghan conflict Soviet–Afghan War Afghan Civil War (1989–1992) Afghan Civil War (1992–1996) Afghan Civil War (1996–2001) War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)

Obaidullah Akhund (Pashto: ملا عبيدالله آخوند; c. 1968 – 5 March 2010) was an Afghan politician, insurgent commander, and a senior Taliban leader who was the Minister of Defense in the First Taliban government and then an insurgent commander during the Taliban insurgency against the Afghan government of Hamid Karzai and the US-led NATO forces. He was captured by Pakistani security forces in 2007 and died of heart disease in a Pakistani prison in 2010.

Biography

Obaidullah Akhund was born in the Panjwai district of Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan and was believed to be born in about 1968. He was of the Alakozai tribe.

Obaidullah Akhund became the Defense Minister of Afghanistan in April 1997, and the second of two top deputies to Mullah Omar, the spiritual leader of the Taliban movement. Obaidullah was seen as the "number three" man in the Taliban. After the fall of Kandahar in December 2001, Obaidullah Akhund was given operational control of the Taliban. In late 2001 or early 2002, Obaidullah surrendered to Afghan Northern Alliance troops near Kandahar and was then released as part of an amnesty.

He was one of the main Taliban military leaders in 2003 and was named to the Rahbari Shura (leadership council). Abdul Latif Hakimi, who was captured by Pakistan in 2005, said that Obaidullah was one of two people with direct access to Mullah Omar and that Obaidullah had personally ordered insurgent attacks, including the killing of a foreign-aid official in March 2005.

Obaidullah was captured by Pakistani security forces in February 2007 in Quetta, Pakistan. He was the most senior Taliban official captured since the start of the war in Afghanistan in 2001.

Obaidullah was freed in November 2007 in exchange for the release of more than 200 Pakistani soldiers captured by the Taliban. He was rearrested in February 2008 and died on March 5, 2010, of heart disease at a prison in Karachi, Pakistan.

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