KABUL - The leader of the Taliban movement, Sheikh Hebatullah

Akhundzada, has appointed Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir as a new military official for the province of Panjshir and Andarab district in Baghlan province (northern Afghanistan).

According to Afghan sources, Mullah Zakir was one of the first to enter the presidential palace in the Afghan capital (Kabul) hours after the escape of former Afghan President Muhammad Ashraf Ghani after the movement's control of the capital on August 15, 2021, and his appointment as a military official outside the composition of the forces sparked There are several questions about what is happening in the province of Panjshir and the Andrap district in northern Afghanistan.

Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir is considered one of the most important leaders of the Taliban movement in the last two decades in Afghanistan. Despite the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban's arrival to power, he did not appear in front of the cameras like the leader of the movement, and no information was published about him, and there are no pictures of him in the media and social networking sites.


Who is Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir?

Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir was born in 1937 in the Kajki district of Helmand province (southern Afghanistan). His real name is Ghulam Rasul. He is 50 years old. He lived part of his life in Jawzjan province in the north of the country. He belongs to the Ali Zai tribe that lives in Helmand province and has influence. Large, as it constitutes 40% of the population of Helmand Province.

He studied at a religious school in Afghanistan, before traveling to Pakistan, where he attended a "religious" school in the city of Quetta in Pakistani Balochistan, and the school was affiliated with the organization of a former jihadist leader, Mawlawi Muhammad Nabi Muhammadi.

Zakir joined the Taliban movement in 1997, and participated in its war against the former mujahideen factions, led by the leader of the Islamic Party, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Ahmed Shah Massoud, and the leader of the Islamic Jamiat Party, Burhanuddin Rabbani.

After the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and the collapse of the first Taliban government, Mullah Zakir, like other field commanders in the Taliban movement, was arrested in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif by militias affiliated with General Abdul Rashid Dostum, and then transferred to Guantanamo Bay, before being returned to prison in 2007. He was released in 2008 in an exchange of detainees between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

After the release of Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir, he returned to the battlefield and was supervising military operations in the states of Helmand and Nimroz, then became a military official for 18 southern and northern states.


A source in the Taliban movement told Al Jazeera Net, "Inside the Taliban movement, Mullah Zakir is seen as a military figure. Since the first Taliban government, he had more than 3,000 fighters, and the military leadership used to send him to a place that is difficult for others to control or repel enemy attacks from."

Mullah Zakir's message after declaring his allegiance to former Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour (communication sites)

His relationship with the founder and first leader of the Taliban movement

Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir was able to gain the confidence of the founder of the Taliban movement, Mullah Muhammad Omar, for his role in the fighting in Herat and the northern states. Mansour dismissed him from his post.

Writer and political researcher Khaled Jalili told Al Jazeera Net, "The star of Mullah Zakir rose during the era of Mullah Muhammad Omar, but after his death Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour disagreed with him, withdrew his powers, and announced his retirement for health reasons in 2014, but he returned and reconciled with him and pledged allegiance to him as Emir of the Faithful, and now he enjoys relations Good with the current leader of the Taliban, Sheikh Hebatullah Akhundzadeh."

Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir enjoys wide influence in the Taliban movement, and it was reported that he was going to take the position of the Afghan Ministry of Defense in the government that the Taliban would form after the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, but he was not appointed, and he returned to his hometown in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan.

According to Taliban sources, his house in Sangin district was searched and a large amount of weapons were exported from him.

A government source says - to Al Jazeera Net - that the appointment of Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir as a military commander for the battle fronts in the state of Panjshir and the Andarab district for two main reasons: the first: the man's experience and knowledge of the geography of the northern states, and secondly, the new Afghan government's desire to eliminate the so-called resistance in the state of Panjshir and other areas Before it escalates and foreign parties intervene on the line, Afghanistan will be dragged into another internal war."


New resistance core

The Taliban managed to control the entire Afghan territory, but after a while a movement called the "National Resistance Front" appeared in the state of Panjshir, led by Ahmed Masoud, son of the former commander Ahmed Shah Masoud.

According to sources in the Afghan Ministry of Defense, it has sent a large number of its forces to the province of Panjshir and Andarab district to contain what the new Afghan government calls the insurgents.

Experts in the Afghan affairs believe that the new Afghan government should participate with other political forces in its government so that the country enjoys the relative stability provided by the Taliban movement, and that the participation of others in power and the government blocks the way for foreign parties and does not allow them to extend a helping hand.

The writer and political researcher Hikmat Jalil told Al Jazeera Net, "The so-called resistance front in the state of Panjshir wants to have a role in Afghanistan, and its current leadership lives outside the country, and it can stir up unrest for the government if it receives military and financial aid, then it will be difficult for the Taliban." ".

Last year, Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Defense Minister Mullah Muhammad Yaqoub, Afghan army commander Qari Faseeruddin Fitrat, as well as other officials visited Panjshir Province to assess the security situation and build relations with its people to prevent fighting or chaos.