According to informed sources, relations between Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and Bashir Noorzai, a former drug trafficker who returned to Afghanistan after being released from a U.S. prison, have recently become strained over the management of mining and oil projects.
The sources said Noorzai was welcomed by Taliban officials after arriving in Kabul following his release. After pledging allegiance to Hibatullah Akhundzada, he reportedly traveled to Quetta before returning to Afghanistan.
According to the sources, Hibatullah later asked Noorzai to cooperate with the Taliban administration on mining and petroleum projects and instructed the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum to review several major contracts and channel them through him.
Noorzai, who has previously been described by some media outlets and observers as the “drug kingpin” and the “Pablo Escobar of the Taliban” because of his past involvement in narcotics trafficking, has reportedly played an active role in several gold and oil extraction projects in recent months.
However, sources close to the Taliban say disagreements over the management of mining projects and the distribution of revenues have damaged the relationship between the two men. According to these sources, Noorzai’s independent decisions and activities in the mining and petroleum sectors prompted Hibatullah to reduce his authority and introduce new arrangements for managing those industries.
The Taliban have not publicly commented on these reports, and the claims made by the sources have not been independently verified.
