Taliban’s New Leader Akhundzada Lacks ‘Influence’: US News Report

His fate is dependent upon the space he can carve for himself with influential members of the senior council.

The new Taliban leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada. (Photo Courtesy: YouTube Screengrab)

Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada,Taliban’s new chief, is reportedly not being able to live up to the “influence and grip” that his predecessor Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour commanded, a US media report said on Tuesday.

Consequently, Taliban’s decision-making powers have allegedly returned to its senior council based in Quetta, Pakistan.

“The early tenure of the Taliban’s new leader, a low-key religious scholar seen as a potential unifier, has been notable for lacking the drama his predecessor seemed unable to shake,” a report in the New York Times said.

“But even after two months in the role, Akhundzada remains something of a mystery to the Taliban rank and file,” the report asserted.

From the first days of the hasty leadership meetings that elevated Mawlawi Haibatullah, it was clear that the Taliban’s decision-making power was returning to the insurgency’s senior council based in Quetta, Pakistan – a politburo of about two dozen clerics and commanders split between the older generation that founded the Taliban and newer members who were empowered more recently.

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Quoting Borhan Osman, a researcher who has written extensively about the Taliban, the report also said that Akhundzada’s fate is dependent upon the space he can carve for himself with the ‘shura’ (influential members of the senior council.)

“Akhundzada is calm and understanding, a symbol of politeness who has always led a humble lifestyle,” said Hajji Saifidad Aka, an elder from the new leader’s birth village.

(With inputs from PTI.)