Mullah Abdullah Sarhadi

2. Previous Function:
Taliban´s regional Military Commander for Hazarajat (2016)
Provincial Governor Bamian Bamyan (20220416, 20260101)
Governor of Jawzjan (20260102, 20260722)

3. Biodata:
Mullah Abdullah Sarhadi, who took office as governor in November 2021, appears to have gone rogue after he heard a rumor that there was buried treasure hidden beneath the site. Locals reported that Sarhadi suddenly closed off the area surrounding the ruins in mid-January 2022 and ordered workers to look for treasure. When news reached the Taliban ministry of culture in Kabul, Sarhadi ignored orders to stop digging, stating that he was “in charge of Bamiyan.”

Hamid Naweed, Afghan art historian and former professor at Kabul University, whose work has involved in-depth research into the Bamiyan Buddhas told Artnet News that Sarhadi is looking for treasure like the Bactrian Gold Treasure, which was found in the tombs of Tillya Tepe, an archaeological site in northern Afghanistan when it was excavated in 1978.
Sarhadi is a Taliban hardliner and alleged war criminal. He served in senior positions during the 1996-2001 Taliban regime and was reportedly involved in early 2001 in a series of massacres at Bamiyan and in the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas. He was also reportedly held in Guantánamo for six years and released in 2012.