Alhaj Mullah Khairullah Khairkhaw, the Acting Minister of Information and Culture

Mulla Khairullah Khairkhwa Minister of Information and Culture

Born in Gahwari village of Arghastan district of Kandahar province, honorable Alhaj Mulla Khairullah Khairkhaw, son of late Sayed Wali, migrated to Pakistan along with his family when he was just a child after the communist coup. There, he joined an Islamic seminary, where he studied Islamic religion in Balochistan's Saranan camp, Quetta city, and then was admitted to Jamia Muhammadiyah madrasa. Mr. Khairkhaw is also Hafiz (a memorizer) of the Holy Qur'an, and in addition to his mother tongue, Pashto, he is comfortable conversing fluently in Dari, Arabic, English, and Urdu languages. He practically participated in the Jihad (holy war) against the Soviet Union when the Islamic movement began operating under the leadership of the late Amir-ul-Momineen Mullah Muhammad Umar Mujahid (May Allah Have Mercy on Him) to eradicate corruption and restore peace in the country. Before the conquest of Kabul, Mr. Khairkhah Khirkhwa served as the spokesman of the Taliban Islamic Movement. During the rule of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, he served as the Minister of Interior, then the head of the southwest region, and later as the governor of Herat province. After the American invasion of Afghanistan, he was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and then handed over to the Americans who held him at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba on 1/5/2002, where he was imprisoned for about 13 years. On January 6, 2014, he, along with four other Taliban leaders, was released in a prisoner exchange with an American prisoner and transferred to Qatar. In 2018, he was appointed as a member of the political office and the peace negotiation team with the Americans in Qatar. After the Islamic Emirate regained power of the country, he was appointed as the acting Minister of Information and Culture under an order from His Excellency Amir-ul-Momineen, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Emirate (May Allah Protect Him), and he is also a member of the political commission.