Mawlawi Mohammad Qasim Khalid, a prominent Taliban leader, was appointed Deputy Minister of Counternarcotics at the Ministry of Interior in mid-October 2025.
Before assuming this position, he served as Governor of Nimruz province since late November 2023. Previously, he was Governor of Kabul province from December 2022 to November 2023 and served as the Deputy Minister of Audit at the Ministry of Borders and Tribal Affairs from June to December 2022. Prior to these roles, he served as the Governor of eastern Kunar province.
In 2011, he was captured by U.S. forces en route to Logar from Kunar province. He spent 34 days in a local prison in Kunar before being transferred to Directorate 40, a detention facility run by the then-Afghan intelligence service in Kabul. Later, he was relocated to Pul-e-Charkhi prison, where he spent 13 months in detention. During this time, he managed to secure his release by paying Afghan judges approximately $95,000. Upon his release, he returned to Logar before relocating to Ghazni, where he served as a shadow governor for three years in the Taliban's insurgency.
