biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1957– )
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| biography:
| Afghan interim prime minister (2001–2) and head of state (2002– ), born in Kandahar, Afghanistan. A Pashtun, and son of a powerful chief of the Popolzai tribe, he studied politics at the University of Simla, India. In 1983 during the war with the Soviet Union he channelled money, weapons, and supplies to the Mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan. When the Soviets left, he served as deputy foreign minister in the Mujahideen administration (1992), but quickly became disenchanted with them and sided with the Taliban. By 1994 he had become increasingly disillusioned with the movement, refused the post of ambassador to the UN in 1996, and went into exile in Pakistan, where he began organizing resistance against the Taliban. He travelled repeatedly to the USA to lobby for support, and secretly returned to Afghanistan to recruit anti-Taliban fighters in October 2001. At the UN Bonn conference on Afghanistan (Dec 2001), he was named leader of the interim government. He won a landslide majority to become head of state (June 2002). |
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