KABUL -
The Afghan Ministry of Defense announced the killing of the dissident Taliban leader Mawlawi Mahdi Mujahid in Herat province, near the border with Iran in western Afghanistan, and said in a statement that the border guards in Herat had killed Mawlawi Mujahid while he was trying to escape to Iran, after his rebellion in Sarbul province, northern Afghanistan. .
Mujahid defected from the movement months ago due to a dispute over exploration in coal mines. He belongs to the Hazara ethnicity and was considered one of the most important field commanders in the Taliban in the northern states, so why did he defect from the Taliban?
Why did he decide to go to Iran and how was he assassinated?
Who is Mawlawi Mahdi Mujahid?
Mawlawi Mahdi Mujahid was born on August 16, 1989 in a small village in the Balkhab district of Sarbul province in northern Afghanistan. He belongs to a poor family of the Hazara ethnicity. He was eight years old when the Taliban first took control of the Afghan capital Kabul in 1996, and after 3 years it was able to seize Mujahid's hometown in the Balkhab district of northern Afghanistan, and his family decided to flee to Iran, and he returned after the overthrow of the Taliban after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
After his return, he registered himself in a religious school and was working with his father on his farm. A former security source told Al Jazeera Net: "Mahdi Mujahid was arrested 12 years ago on charges of his involvement in the kidnapping of the son of a wealthy person in his area, and he was sentenced to 14 years in prison and released after 7 years, and he reconciled With the family of the kidnapped, mediated by the leader of the Islamic Unity Party, Muhammad Muhaqiq.
Mawlawi Mahdi Mujahid after capture with two Taliban guards (Foreign Press)
Mujahid tried to expand his relations with political leaders of the Shiite Hazara ethnicity in the capital, Kabul, with the aim of obtaining contracts to extract the coal mine in the Wilayat of Sarbel, but he was unable to do so due to the presence of strong competitors, and clashes took place between him and gunmen affiliated with the former jihadist leader Muhammad Muhaqiq that lasted for a whole week, leaving dead and wounded. From both sides.
Writer and political researcher Muhammad Tawakli told Al Jazeera Net: "After the clashes and trying to obtain the mine, Mawlawi Mahdi pledged allegiance to the Taliban movement in Sarbul province, joined it and began recruiting among his sect for the Taliban."
The Taliban movement appointed Mawlawi Mahdi Mujahid in 2019 as a military official in the province of Sarbul, and he was fighting against the former Afghan forces. After the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan and the Taliban's arrival to power, he was appointed as the head of Afghan intelligence in Bamiyan province in central Afghanistan, but he was dismissed after 5 months.
Mawlawi Mujahid presented himself as a representative of the Shiites and Hazaras in the Taliban government, but the Hazaras did not welcome him much and the Shiites did not support him in the recent crisis with the Taliban. The writer and political researcher Hikmat Jalil says to Al Jazeera Net: "Mawlawi Mahdi saw that this was his opportunity to emerge as a Shiite leader in central Afghanistan and that he represented the generation What was new in the Hazara, but the traditional leadership was on the lookout and did not allow him to represent the Hazara and Shiites in the new government, so no one stood with him in the recent clashes except for a few of his fighters.
The dispute with the Taliban
Some observers say that Mawlawi Mujahid disagreed with the Islamic Emirate over the revenues from the coal mine in his hometown, which the Taliban want to extract, and that he is the real cause of the dispute and conflict between the two parties.
A source in the Afghan Ministry of Interior told Al Jazeera Net: "The Islamic Emirate sent 3 delegations to resolve the dispute with Mawlawi Mahdi, but he was asking for a share in the coal mine, and demanded 75% of the mine's proceeds, which was rejected by the Taliban."
After the Taliban came to power, Mahdi was appointed head of Afghan intelligence in Bamiyan province in central Afghanistan (communication sites)
Followers of Mawlawi Mujahid say his disagreement with the central government is due to his claim to Hazara rights and complain that he is largely excluded from government circles, and that adherents of the Jaafari Shi'a school of jurisprudence are discriminated against by the Taliban.
After the failure of the third delegation that visited the city of Balkhab to appease Mawlawi Mahdi, the Afghan authorities threatened to refer his case to the Ministry of Defense, then Mawlawi Mahdi mobilized his followers and settled in the Balkhab district.
After the Afghan government besieged the Balkhab district in northern Afghanistan, Mawlawi Mujahid and a number of his fighters were able to withdraw to the mountains, and after days of relatively calming the situation, he and his fighters decided to seek refuge in Iran, and chose Iran for many reasons, the most important of which was that he lived his youth there and knows the country and that many of the former Afghan forces settled In Iran, she is waiting for her to return to Afghanistan. Perhaps he saw that he might be able to open channels of communication with her by opening a front against the new Afghan government.
How did Mawlawi Mujahid kill?
The statement of the Afghan Ministry of Defense says that Mawlawi Mujahid was killed in the clashes that took place between his followers and Afghan forces near the border with Iran. Islamic Emirate.
Afghan experts believe that Mawlawi Mujahid was betrayed by elements in the Iranian forces, as he secretly went to Iranian lands, shaved his beard and changed his facial features so that the Taliban did not know him.
The writer and strategic analyst, Ali Tawakli, says to Al Jazeera Net: "Mawlawi Mahdi entered Iran by land last Monday, and the Iranian forces arrested him on Tuesday and handed him over to the Taliban, who killed him in cold blood after his capture."