Mullah Obaidullah the Akhund (Pashto: ملا عبيدالله آخوند; c. 1968 – March 5, 2010) was the Defence Minister in the Afghan Taliban government of 1996–2001 and then an insurgent commander during the Taliban insurgency against the Afghan government of Hamid Karzai and the US-led NATO forces. He was captured by Pakistani security forces in 2007 and died of heart disease in a Pakistani prison in 2010.

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Mullah Obaidullah Akhund عبيدالله آخوند
Second Deputy Leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
In office May 2002 – February 2007[1]
Leader	Mullah Omar
Preceded by	Office established[2]
Succeeded by	Akhtar Mansour[1]
Defense Minister of Afghanistan
In office April 1997 – September 9, 2001
Personal details
Born	c. 1968 Panjwai, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan
Died	March 5, 2010(2010-03-05) (aged 41–42) Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan
Political party	Taliban
Occupation	Politician, Taliban leader
Military service
Allegiance	Taliban (1994–2010)
Years of service	1994–2010
Rank	Commander
Battles/wars	Soviet–Afghan War Afghan Civil War War in Afghanistan

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Obaidullah Akhund was born in the Panjwai district of Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan^[3] and was believed to be born in about 1968. He was of the Alakozai tribe.^[4]

Obaidullah Akhund became the Defense Minister of Afghanistan in April 1997, and the second of two^[5] top deputies to Mullah Omar, the spiritual leader of the Taliban movement. Obaidullah was seen as the "number three" man in the Taliban.^[6] In late 2001 or early 2002, Obaidullah surrendered to Afghan Northern Alliance troops near Kandahar and was then released as part of an amnesty.^[7]

He was one of the main Taliban military leaders in 2003 and was named to the Rahbari Shura.^[8] Abdul Latif Hakimi, who was captured by Pakistan in 2005, said that Obaidullah was one of two people with direct access to Mullah Omar and that Obaidullah had personally ordered insurgent attacks, including the killing of a foreign-aid official in March 2005.^[3]

Obaidullah was captured by Pakistani security forces in February 2007 in Quetta, Pakistan.^[6][9] He was the most senior Taliban official captured since the start of the war in Afghanistan in 2001.^[10] The arrest coincided with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan in late February 2007, but the timing was reported to be a coincidence rather than a reaction to Cheney's visit.^[10]

Obaidullah was freed in November 2007 in exchange for the release of more than 200 Pakistani soldiers captured by the Taliban. He was rearrested in February 2008^[11][12] and died on March 5, 2010, of heart disease inside a prison in Karachi, Pakistan.^[13][14]