Mawlawi Abdul Ahad Talib, a prominent Taliban military leader, was appointed Chief of Police for Kandahar province in February 2025. As a close confidante of the Taliban's emir, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, he has also been overseeing a Special Military Unit responsible for protecting the emir since late October 2023.
Prior to these positions, he served for two years as the Governor of Helmand province, where he reportedly oversaw the development of the Omari Suicide Corps, a military contingent of the Taliban’s suicide forces.
Before the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021, Abdul Ahad Talib was said to have served as the Taliban’s shadow deputy governor in Helmand province. In April 2020, he was reportedly captured by Afghan forces during an operation in Sangin district of Helmand province, where he was leading a Taliban military offensive against the Afghan forces. He was later released among the 5,000 Taliban prisoners freed as part of the U.S.-Taliban negotiations in Doha, Qatar. However, some Taliban insiders have suggested that Mawlawi Talib's release was not part of the U.S.-Taliban accord but rather an exchange for the release of seven Indian engineers the Taliban had kidnapped in May 2018 in Pul-e-Khomri, Baghlan province.
