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 also commands a Special Military Unit responsible for protecting the emir since late October 2023, known as Amir-ul-Momineen's Khas Zwak (Special Force of the Emir).
Before assuming these roles, he served for two years as the Governor of Helmand province, where he reportedly oversaw the development of the Omari Suicide battalion, a specialized military contingent of the Taliban’s suicide forces. Prior to the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021, Abdul Ahad Talib reportedly served as the group'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. 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 claimed that his release was not part of the U.S.-Taliban Doha agreement but rather part of an exchange for seven Indian engineers kidnapped by the Taliban in May 2018 in Pul-e-Khomri, Baghlan province.
