He is rarely seen in public. So who is he and what motivates him?
Even among his ranks, it's extremely difficult to speak to any Taliban official on the record about their supreme leader. A deputy minister in the Taliban's government described having to travel more than 300 miles to the ancient city of Kandahar to meet with theOnce there, he waited for around three days before getting a call confirming that the meeting would go ahead.
He described similar levels of secrecy and security preceding his meeting with Hibatullah, going so far as to be given passwords to memorize in order to verify his identity before being transported to the meeting location. From early adulthood, he was against modern-day education for boys and girls and referred to schooling as a source of evil and degenerating of morality.
Mullah Basir is a former classmate of Hibatullah and, despite criticizing him as a hardliner and extreme conservative, described him as a"kind, devout and intelligent person."
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