Mullah Baradar, veteran terrorist heads Taliban politburo in Doha

Afghanistan's Taliban have appointed the group's co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar as the head of their political office in Doha to lead talks with the United States on ending their 17-year insurgency.

"The esteemed Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar has been appointed chief of the political office," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement.

Who is Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar?

Baradar was born 1968 in Yatimak village, Deh Rahwod District, Orūzgān Uruzgan Province. He grew up in Kandahar in a madrassa and fought in that province, mainly in the Panjwayi area, against the Soviet army in the 1980s.

Baradar fought with the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet-Afghan War and afterwards operated a madrassa in Maiwand, Kandahar Province alongside his former commander, Mohammad Omar.

Baradar was the head of the Taliban's leadership council the so-called Quetta Shura, which operates in underground exile in Pakistan and he commanded its military operations. He ranked second only to Omar, who has not been seen in public since 2001. Omar acts as the spiritual head of the group, while Baradar had operational control.

In Feb. 2010, he was captured near Karachi during a raid by Pakistani forces, and was released in 2013 in a bid to negotiate with the terrorists of Taliban.