Shockingly, the Taliban leader and Afghanistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is featured in Time Magazine’s list of 100 most influential people of 2021. He was featured under the “Leaders,” along with international leaders including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, USA’s former President and now President Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
The list was published on Wednesday (September 15, 2021).
While writing the profile on Baradar for Time Magazine, Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid has described him as a “charismatic military leader,” a “deeply pious figure” and wrote that he stands as the “fulcrum for the future” of Afghanistan.
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Who is Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar?
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is the co-founder, commander and political chief of the Taliban.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was born and raised in Kandahar, the Taliban's birthplace. Baradar's life, like that of other Afghans, was forever changed by the Soviet invasion of the nation in the late 1970s, which turned him into an insurgent.
He was said to have battled alongside Mullah Omar, the one-eyed cleric. In the early 1990s, amid the turmoil and corruption of the civil war that ensued after the Soviet withdrawal, the two created the Taliban movement.
He was appointed chief of the Taliban's political office and oversaw the signing of the US withdrawal agreement.
Also Read: Know five brutal leaders of Taliban who will lead govt in Afghanistan
Some of the personalities in the Time Magazine’s list of most influential people of 2021 are:
Leaders: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, US President Joe Biden, US Vice President Kamala Harris, US former President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Afghan journalist and women’s right Mahbouba Seraj.
Icons: Prince Harry and Meghan, Britney Spears, Dolly Parton, Muna El-Kurd and Mohammed El-Kurd, and Manjusha P. Kulkarni, Russell Jeung and Cynthia Choi.
Pioneers: Adar Poonawalla, Billie Eilish, Roger Cox, Olimpia Coral Melo Cruz, and Esther Ze Naw Bamvo and Ei Thinzar Maung.
Innovators: Elon Musk, Adrienne Banfield Norris, Willow Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, Mary Barra, MiMi Aung, and Sara Menker.