Mullah Mohammad Shirin Akhund, also known as Abdul Ali Hanafi and Abdullah Hanafi, is a prominent Taliban leader, who currently holds a dual role as the Governor of Kandahar since May 2023 and the Deputy Minister of Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense since the fall of 2021. His extensive background includes serving as a member of the Taliban’s leadership council and holding significant positions in the group’s military and intelligence commissions. He was a close aide to the group’s founding leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, and briefly assumed responsibility for Mullah Omar’s personal security following the U.S. engagement in 2001. After 2001, Mullah Shirin served as the shadow governor for Kandahar province and was responsible for intelligence affairs in the southern region, including in Ghazni province, during the Taliban's insurgency. Later, during the U.S.-Taliban negotiations, he participated as a member of the Taliban’s negotiating team in Doha, Qatar, representing the position of the group's hardliners in the talks to include the emir. Following the Taliban’s takeover, he briefly served as the Governor of Kabul from August 24 to November 7, 2021. Notably, an incident of significance attributed to Mullah Shirin is his reported involvement in the attack on the former Afghan governor's compound in Kandahar in January 2018 during the Taliban's insurgency. Although the then-governor survived the attack, it resulted in the tragic loss of six members of the UAE Embassy in Kabul, including the Emirati ambassador, who was a guest of the Afghan governor at the time. Mullah Shirin is known to be a close associate of the Taliban's emir and shares a close friendship with Mohammad Ibrahim Sadr, the current deputy interior minister, who formerly led the Taliban’s military commission.
