Born in 1970 in a Pashtun household in Zarghun village of Helmand province, Amir Khan Muttaqi’s life has been intertwined with the historical past of his conflict-torn nation. His household had migrated to Helmand from Paktia. The Afghanistan that he was born into was to vary radically whilst he began his early schooling in his village.
Among the waves of Afghans who left their properties after Soviet intervention started in December 1979 have been Mr. Muttaqi and his household from Helmand. He shifted to the Afghan refugee camps that had come up close to Peshawar, Pakistan. The refugees additionally supplied younger fighters for resisting the Soviet invasion and Mr. Muttaqi was one of many youngsters who joined the anti-Soviet jihad of the Eighties, funded by the CIA and guided by Pakistan’s ISI. It was throughout his years as a refugee in Pakistan that the younger Pashtun fighter picked up Urdu which he makes use of in the present day together with his Pakistani and Indian interlocutors.
In Peshawar, seven political events got here up within the refugee camps (the Peshawar Seven). Prominent leaders from these teams have been Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Burhanuddin Rabbani, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, Hazrat Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, Pir Sayed Ahmad Gailani, Maulana Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi, and Mohammed Yunus Khalis. Of them, Maulana Mohammadi and Khalis prolonged full help to the Taliban when the outfit was launched within the Nineties.
Mr. Muttaqi joined the Islamic Revolutionary Movement of Afghanistan of Maulana Mohammadi, who had additionally groomed different Taliban leaders corresponding to its founder Mullah Omar. Like Mohammadi earlier than them, Mullah Omar, Mr. Muttaqi, and Hibatullah Akhundzada, the present chief of the Taliban, studied in madrasas that adopted the curriculum of Darul Uloom Deoband. It was due to this hyperlink Mr. Muttaqi described Deoband as his ‘Madar e Ilmi’.
Among all of the Taliban commanders, Mr. Muttaqi is thought for being a negotiator, a job that was given to him by the late Mullah Omar. Muttaqi is likely one of the few Taliban leaders who’ve survived all of the violent phases of Afghanistan’s current historical past. As a younger Taliban chief, he turned the Minister of Information and Culture and common spokesperson of the Taliban in 1996 when the outfit took energy in a chaotic state of affairs.
He was serving because the Minister of Education when the struggle with the U.S. started in Afghanistan in 2001, following the 9/11 assaults, resulting in the overthrow of the primary Taliban regime. He survived probably the most intense section of violence that continued until negotiation was began with the Taliban throughout the first time period of U.S. President Donald Trump in 2017-18.
Return to Kabul
Mr. Muttaqi was a part of the U.S.-Taliban negotiation and was current on the signing of the deal in Doha on February 29, 2020, when the Taliban delegation was led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. Though the deal was opposed by the Ashraf Ghani authorities of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Taliban carried out a hybrid struggle on the bottom following the deal and captured Kabul by August 2021. Mr. Muttaqi then turned the Foreign Minister.
Ever since, Mr. Muttaqi has travelled to China, Russia, Pakistan, Doha, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, India and different international locations.
Over the final 4 years, probably the most difficult facet of Mr. Muttaqi’s task has been presenting Afghanistan as a rational actor even because it continued to impose its no-education coverage on younger girls, who’re additionally restricted from becoming a member of the workforce. Mr. Muttaqi has additionally carried out just a few tough discussions efficiently since taking cost, together with the one concerning the discharge of American hostage Amir Amiri, who was launched in September 2025 after President Trump’s Special Representative on hostage affairs, Adam Boehler, held discussions with him.
Apart from the battle with Pakistan, Mr. Muttaqi’s greatest problem continues to be the truth that solely Russia has up to now given diplomatic recognition to Taliban because the ruler of Afghanistan. It stays to be seen if he can persuade different main powers to recognise the Taliban because the de jure rulers of Afghanistan.
Published – October 19, 2025 01:47 am IST
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