Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa is a prominent Taliban leader who assumed his current position as Minister of Information and Culture in September 2021. A trusted confidante of the Taliban’s founding leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, Khairkhwa previously held the crucial role of the Taliban’s interior minister, overseeing internal security and civilian intelligence, until his capture by U.S. forces in 2001. He was subsequently transferred to the Guantanamo detention facility. In the past, he has served as governor of Herat province, commander of the northwestern region of Afghanistan, and spokesperson for the Taliban's regime. In 2014, he was released from Guantanamo in a prisoner exchange between the United States and the Taliban, which involved four other senior Taliban members, commonly known as the "Taliban Five" in exchange for the release of U.S. sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. Upon release, Khairkhwa was transferred to Doha, Qatar, where he took on a pivotal role in the Taliban’s political office and negotiating team. According to Mullah Khairkhwa’s Guantanamo detainee file, he maintained links to Osama bin Laden and involvement with al-Qaeda's training camps, notably those operated by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in southwestern Herat province. Khairkhwa received his initial education from his late father, Sayed Wali, before his family became refugees in Pakistan. During their time in Pakistan, he pursued religious studies, initially in Balochistan's Saranan camp, then in Quetta city, and later at Jamia Mohammadiyah in Cherat, as well as in Kohat. Khairkhwa, who is proficient in English, Arabic, and Urdu, is listed on the UN's sanctions list under the designation TAi.093.
