With Taliban’s No. 2 in custody, speculation begins on his replacement

Possible successors to captured Taliban’s No. 2

Here are names that have surfaced in discussions about who might replace the Afghan Taliban’s No. 2, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who recently was arrested by Pakistani authorities with the aid of U.S. intelligence:

—Mullah Mohammad Hassan. A former governor of Kandahar when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan who has both military and civilian experience. He studied in Afghan and Pakistani religious schools before joining the war against the Soviets as a commander in Kandahar. He joined the Taliban in the fall of 1994 and later was appointed governor of Kandahar. In 1996, he became the Taliban’s regional governor for the southern zone.

—Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul, also known as Mullah Abdullah Zakir and Mullah Qayyum. Rasoul, a native of Helmand province, joined the Taliban in 1995. He was seriously wounded in a 1997 bomb attack, but rejoined the insurgency in Kandahar in 1999. He was captured in Kunduz province in late 2001, and imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was handed over to the Afghan government in December 2007 and freed.

—Agha Jan Mohtasim. A former Taliban finance minister who is reported to have family links to Taliban leader Mullah Omar. As a government official, he had the power to control the flow of money and appoint deputy ministers. He was born in the late 1960s in Kandahar city.

—Akthar Mansour. Nicknamed “King of Planes,” Mansour was the former Taliban minister of civil aviation and former director of military aviation. He is active in Khost, Paktia and Paktika provinces in eastern Afghanistan and is suspected of being involved in drug trafficking. Mansour is a former Taliban governor of Kandahar.

Source: Afghan, Pakistani officials; U.N. lists of Taliban figures under economic sanctions; unclassified State Department documents offering thumbnail sketches of Taliban figures; and U.S. defense and intelligent sources.