He was an Islamic judge of the Sharia courts of the 1996–2001 Taliban government. He was chosen to lead the Taliban’s shadow court system at the start of the Taliban insurgency, and remained in that post until being elected supreme leader of the Taliban in May 2016.

Hibatullah Akhundzada (Pashto: هَبَّتِ اللَّهُ اخْنُدَزَادَهُ ‎; born 26 March 1957) is an Afghan politician, soldier, scholar, cleric, and jurist who is the 2nd and the current Supreme Leader of Afghanistan since 2021 and as well as the 3rd Leader of the Taliban since 2016 following a drone that strike killed his ...

Sep 7, 2021 · Who Is Haibatullah Akhundzada, The Taliban’s 'Supreme Leader' Of Afghanistan? The Afghan Taliban has named a reclusive, hard-line Sunni cleric as its supreme leader in a still-unrecognized...

Jun 17, 2024 · Hibatullah Akhundzada gave his warning in a sermon to mark the festival of Eid al-Adha at a mosque in southern Kandahar province, weeks before a Taliban delegation goes to Doha, Qatar for U.N.-hosted talks on Afghanistan.

Sep 7, 2021 · Hibatullah Akhundzada became the supreme commander of the Taliban in May 2016, and is now leader of the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

Feb 17, 2023 · Behind this powerful entity is a reclusive supreme leader, Mawlavi Hibatullah Akhundzada. Since the group came back to power with the U.S.-led military coalition withdrawal a year and a half ago,...

Hibatullah Akhundzada: Afghanistan's Reclusive Taliban Leader. By . Claire Gounon. Share. Resize. Reprints. The Barron's news department was not involved in the creation of the content above. This ...

Apr 13, 2023 · The Taliban's supreme leader says Afghanistan will be “ruined" without justice, in a rare audio message shared on social media. Hibatullah Akhundzada, an Islamic scholar, almost never appears in public and hardly ever leaves the Taliban heartland in …

Aug 15, 2023 · Two years since the Taliban took over again, Afghanistan is in the hands of Hibatullah Akhundzada, known as the Amir Al Mu'mineen, or "Commander of the Faithful." But despite the prominence...

Apr 6, 2024 · ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban’s reclusive supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada urged his officials to set aside their differences and serve Afghanistan properly, according to a written statement released Saturday ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan.