Afghan Biographies

Sadr Ibrahim


Name Sadr Ibrahim
Ethnic backgr. Pashtun
Date of birth
Function/Grade Ex Deputy Minister
History and Biodata

2. Previous Function:
Minister of Interior acting (20210826) acting
Deputy Minister of Interior (20210907) acting

3. Biodata:
Sadr Ibrahim Ibrahim Sadar originally is from Kandahar Province. He has been with the Taliban since its emergence in 1994. Before that, he was involved in the Mujahideen battle against the Soviet troops. Sadr was from Afghanistan’s Alakozai tribe and his name was Khodaidad. He changed his name to Ibrahim, which is the name of a prophet from Islam. Many reports claim that he is not from Kandahar province but from Helmand province. After the war with the Soviet troops ended, he shifted to Peshawar in Pakistan to teach in a madrassa where Sadr or president title was added to his name by the students there says a report from the Asia Times.

Ibrahim Sadr was given the responsibility to control the Taliban’s defence department managing Soviet fighter jets, helicopter gunships and transport planes after the Taliban’s takeover in 1996 and he played an important role in locating the Taliban’s enemies to rise in the ranks. An extreme hardliner in his religious views, Sadr used his days in the previous Taliban government to develop close contacts with jihadist or terrorist groups and became quite close to Al Qaeda.

During the US attack in 2001, Sadr was the Taliban’s mid-level commander defending Kabul. After the Taliban fled Kabul and Afghanistan, Sadr decided to disappear and again shifted his base to Peshawar in Pakistan. His location was not known to the outside world. It was the time when his meteoric rise in the Taliban started. He was very close to Taliban founder Mullah Omar, and Akhtar Mansour who succeeded Mullah Omar.From an influential Taliban commander, he was appointed Taliban’s military chief in 2014. Taliban announced it in 2016. An analysis by The Asia Times calls him the person who drove the US out of Afghanistan.

The Taliban, under his military leadership, started the current phase of the offensive in 2016. That year, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada became the Taliban’s supreme leader after Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US drone strike. T
he person who led the charge in Kandahar and Helmand provinces soon started targeting Afghan cities to force Afghan troops and international forces. Ibrahim Sadr transformed the Taliban into a well-trained guerilla force that could carry out large scale urban attacks. He adopted widespread use of terror war techniques like assassinations, suicide attacks and roadside bombings.
The latest move by the Taliban may thus be a step to placate Ibrahim Sadr and soon other powerful and independent Taliban commanders may be accommodated as well to appease them after the recent Taliban decisions against them.

 

Last Modified 2022-09-21
Established 2021-08-27