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Taliban leader Baradar featured among Time’s 100 most influentials of 2021

BI Desk || BusinessInsider

Published: 00:31, 17 September 2021   Update: 01:15, 17 September 2021
Taliban leader Baradar featured among Time’s 100 most influentials of 2021

Deputy Prime Minister of Afghanistan Abdul Ghani Baradar, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee are among the South Asian leaders who featured in ‘100 Most Influential People’ of 2021 by Time magazine

For the first time a Taliban leader and now Deputy Prime Minister of Afghanistan Abdul Ghani Baradar has been featured among the ‘100 Most Influential People’ of 2021 by Time magazine.

Other South Asian leaders named in the list are: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chief minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee and Afghan women's rights activist Mahbouba Seraj.

Baradar is revered among the Afghan Taliban as a founding member and a charismatic military leader who is also a deeply pious figure, said his profile for Time's list, written by veteran journalist Ahmed Rashid.

"A quiet, secretive man who rarely gives public statements or interviews, Baradar nonetheless represents a more moderate current within the Taliban, the one that will be thrust into the limelight to win Western support and desperately needed financial aid. The question is whether the man who coaxed the Americans out of Afghanistan can sway his own movement," the profile said.

Baradar was once a close friend of the Taliban’s first leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, who gave him the title ‘Baradar’ or ‘brother’.

Baradar was a senior military commander responsible for attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban government in 2001, a UN sanctions notice said.

Later, he was arrested and imprisoned in Pakistan in 2010 and released in 2018. Since then he led the Taliban's political office in Doha where he took part in negotiation talks with the United States and the Afghan government.

Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden was included in the list in 2004.

Other personalities named on 2021 list includes US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Chinese President Xi Jinping, former US president Donald Trump and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

The UK's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have also been included in the list.

Full list can be seen here: https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2021/

Nagad
Walton