Afghan Biographies
Jawad, Taj Mir Mullah
Name | Jawad, Taj Mir Mullah |
Ethnic backgr. | Pashtun |
Date of birth | |
Function/Grade | 1. Deputy Head Directorate of Intelligence |
History and Biodata |
2. Previous Function: Jawad is a veteran of the Taliban, having served as the director of intelligence in Nangarhar province during the Taliban’s first reign from 1996 until 2001. In 2001, Jawad was reportedly responsible for coordinating the kidnapping of a French journalist in Nangarhar. Following the Taliban’s fall from power in Afghanistan in 2001, the movement created a de facto governmental order that placed Taliban members—shadow officials—in control of specific areas within Afghanistan. The Taliban used these operational areas to counter the Afghan government and repel U.S. troops deployed in the country following the al-Qaeda orchestrated 9/11 attacks. Before the attacks, al-Qaeda had used Afghanistan as a safe haven to plan attacks against western targets. Following U.S. military deployment in the country, the Taliban conducted regular attacks to enforce their control among the Afghan population, resulting in two decades of political and social instability throughout Afghanistan. After the fall of the first Taliban regime, Jawad was reportedly in charge of providing equipment and resources to suicide bombers affiliated with the Taliban. From August 2010, Jawad co-led a Taliban affiliate group called the Kabul Attack Network with Dawood, a Taliban commander who served as the Taliban’s shadow governor of Kabul. The Kabul Attack Network executed large numbers of high-profile attacks throughout Kabul and its neighboring provinces, and had received support from al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and the Hizb-i-Islami Gulbuddin in their operations. According to media sources, from at least 2013, Jawad was a member of the Taliban’s more radical subset, the Haqqani network, where he eventually became a senior commander in the militant group. As a top Taliban official, Jawad also served as a senior propagandist who closely worked with Zabiullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Taliban. Given his role in the Taliban, Jawad was targeted and captured in a raid led by U.S. coalition and Afghan special operations forces on April 28, 2013 in Paktia province. It is uncertain when Jawad was released from detainment. However, according to Rahmatullah Nabil—the former head of Afghanistan’s spy agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS)—Jawad allegedly supervised the Al-Hamza Martyrdom Brigade, an offshoot of the Taliban that received direction, funding, and weapons from the Haqqani network. Jawad reportedly began supervising the brigade’s training of suicide bombers in 2018. According to media sources, Jawad ran the training camp until August 2021. In 2018, Jawad, who was largely based in Peshawar, Pakistan at the time, also reportedly planned the killing of General Abdul Raziq, one of Afghanistan’s most powerful security officials who managed to oust the Taliban from their hold on Kandahar province. Despite Jawad’s training of militants and coordination of attacks throughout Afghanistan, in February 2019, the Taliban agreed to begin peace negotiations with the U.S. government to reduce ongoing violence and end to the Afghan war. The two parties eventually signed a peace agreement on February 29, 2020, in Doha, Qatar. The terms of the Doha agreement stated that the United States would fully withdraw military troops from Afghanistan within the next 14 months. In exchange, the Taliban agreed to renounce al-Qaeda and prevent al-Qaeda and other groups from using Afghanistan as a base for terrorism against the United States. The Taliban also agreed to negotiate a permanent ceasefire with other Afghan militants and the Afghan government. On September 7, 2021, the Taliban announced the official appointments within their caretaker government. Jawad was named deputy to the intelligence chief, Abdul-Haq Wassiq.
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Last Modified | 2022-07-13 |
Established | 2021-09-08 |