Rising son: How Mullah Yaqoob climbed up the Taliban hierarchy 

Until five years ago, few Afghan insurgents had heard of Mullah Mohammed Yaqoob. His rise from obscurity to one of the most senior positions in the Taliban hierarchy may owe to his bloodline since he is the eldest son of Mullah Mohammed Omar, the militia’s founding father. Recent developments indicate, however, that the insurgent group is beginning to see him as a leader in his own right. 

30-year-old Yaqoob is not just among the group’s deputies but also its new military chief. His position as one of the most powerful militia members has been further consolidated after his induction in the Taliban team for intra-Afghan negotiations, though the talks have been delayed since the group awaits the release of the last batch of its prisoners. 

Meanwhile, the Taliban have intensified their offensive against Afghan security forces under Yaqoob’s command and expanded influence through battlefield victories. The Taliban signed a historic peace deal with the United States in February this year, paving the way for the withdrawal of all US forces from Afghanistan. The agreement also raised hopes of ending the longest American war that was triggered weeks after the September 11 attacks of 2001. 

Under the peace deal, the Taliban have stopped launching attacks against US troops and foreign military installations, though their war against local security forces has gone unabated. The Taliban have accused the Kabul administration of reneging on the prisoner release agreement, pointing out that the Afghan government is still holding about 320 insurgents. Unsurprisingly, the group has refused to initiate peace talks with the Kabul government until the prisoner issue is resolved. 

Yaqoob’s inclusion in the negotiating team is widely viewed as highly significant. There are mixed opinions on his ideological and political stance. Some reports suggest that he has taken a moderate position unlike his father, though many analysts do not agree with this assessment. 

While the time frame for intra-Afghan talks to decide the future political set-up in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of foreign forces remains uncertain, the insurgent forces under Yaqoob have been relentlessly trying to extend the group’s control over much of the war-torn country. The young scion of late Taliban supremo has made his presence felt. Whatever the outcome of the talks, Yaqoob is likely to play a crucial role in the group and strive to establish its mastery in Afghanistan

Zahid Hussain

It may be recalled that Yaqoob emerged on Afghanistan’s insurgent landscape some five years ago after it was confirmed that his father had died in 2013. The disclosure led to a fierce succession battle within the group and some powerful Taliban commanders backed Yaqoob to succeed his father. The bid failed, though he was made a member of the powerful leadership council. Two years later, he was appointed the deputy of Hibatullah Akhundzada, the new Taliban chief. 

Yaqoob’s audio messages in recent years indicate his growing influence within the Taliban hierarchy. His appointment as the Taliban military chief over senior commanders also indicate the rise of a new generation of leaders who were not even in their teens when the conservative regime was routed by US-backed forces in November 2001. Mullah Omar’s undisputed leadership kept the Taliban together and helped them reemerge as a formidable force. 

Mystery surrounds the circumstances of his death. Some reports suggest that he died in a hospital in Karachi, but the Taliban leadership and Pakistani officials deny that he ever left Afghanistan. Since his famous escape on a motorbike from Kandahar after the US invasion in October 2001, Omar remained off the grid and only occasionally issued audio messages. 

The mystery was further deepened after a Dutch journalist, Bette Dam, made a sensational disclosure in her 2018 book that the Taliban founder lived and died in a village in Afghanistan’s Zabul province. The findings of the book confirmed the Taliban assertion that their elusive leader never left the country after their conservative regime crumbled in 2001. The book also claimed that Omar was buried in Ghazni. 

It is not clear whether Yaqoob was in contact with his father during the latter’s hiding period. There are also no authentic reports about Yaqoob’s life before 2015. In his first-ever public statement, soon after the news of his father’s death, he called for unity among the Taliban ranks and dismissed rumors that his father’s death was the result of an inside job. 

While the time frame for intra-Afghan talks to decide the future political set-up in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of foreign forces remains uncertain, the insurgent forces under Yaqoob have been relentlessly trying to extend the group’s control over much of the war-torn country. The young scion of late Taliban supremo has made his presence felt. Whatever the outcome of the talks, Yaqoob is likely to play a crucial role in the group and strive to establish its mastery in Afghanistan. 

*Zahid Hussain is an award-winning journalist and author. He is a former scholar at Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholar, USA, and a visiting fellow at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, and at the Stimson Center in Washington DC. He is author of Frontline Pakistan: The struggle with militant Islam (Columbia university press) and The Scorpion’s tail: The relentless rise of Islamic militants in Pakistan (Simon and Schuster, NY). Frontline Pakistan was the book of the year (2007) by the WSJ.

Twitter: @hidhussain