Afghan Biographies

Qari Fasihuddin Fitrat


Name Qari Fasihuddin Fitrat
Ethnic backgr. Tajik
Date of birth
Function/Grade Chief of Army Staff
History and Biodata

2. Previous Function:
Deputy Commander of the Military Commission of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
Chief of Army Staff (20210907)

3. Biodata:
Qari Mohammad Fasihuddin Fitrat Qari Fasihuudin Loi hails from Badakhshan Province. Born in Warduj district, Fasihuddin Fitrat completed his studies at a madrasa in Yamgan district during the Rabbani government in the late 1990s and started
to teach in a primary school there. He joined the Taleban after he moved to Karachi Pakistan to pursue a religious education. Fitrat was deployed to Badakhshan to lead a group of fighters. In 2013, after returning to Pakistan for medical treatment, he was promoted to deputy head of the Taleban’s Military Commission. As deputy to Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir in the commission, Fitrat developed close relationships with the Kandahari leadership, thanks in part to his earlier connection to Gul Agha Ishakzai, also known as Inayatullah Badri, who was the head of the Taleban Financial Commission during the insurgency and later became director of Afghanistan’s Central Bank
.

He is considered one of the most charismatic leaders and is the first Tajik to have made it to the military commission in the history of the Taliban. It is because of him that the entire Northern Alliance was toppled despite the fact that the Haqqani network and Mullah Yaqub, Mullah Baradar and Mullah Haibatullah were from Kandahar, Helmand, Kunar and Ghazni, where they faced a lot of resistance. He is known as the "Conqueror of the North" among the Taliban.

Giving Qari Fasihuddin the post of Deputy Military Commission is also being described as a change in strategy that has been in effect since the 1990s. Although the Taliban used to include non-Pakhtun, they are being given more important posts and powers than in the past.

Although there is a general perception about the Taliban, from the leadership to the grassroots, that it has a Pashtun majority and is popular only in Afghanistan’s Pakhtun-majority provinces, this time the Taliban has also influenced Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara and Turkmen nationalities. Qari Fasihuddin is one of the most important non-Pakhtun Taliban leaders.

 

The Talibans' chief of staff, Qari Fasihuddin, stated on 15 September that the group is considering the creation of a regular armed forces in Afghanistan in the near future. Fasihuddin said that consultations on the matter are ongoing during a press conference in Kabul, according to an Afghan broadcaster.(20210915)

The Afghanistan Green Trend (AGT), led by Amrullah Saleh, has reported that hostility between the Kandahari Taliban and the forces of Fasihuddin Fitrat, the group’s Chief of Army Staff, in Badakhshan, is growing. The AGT also suggested that the Kandahari Taliban, who now control Badakhshan, have started disarming the local Taliban and imposing strict measures on them.(20240503)

 

 

Last Modified 2025-07-08
Established 2021-09-07