The Afghan defense said, “Dissident Taliban leader Mawlawi Mahdi was killed in a clash with security forces near the border with Iran,” noting that “Mawlawi Mahdi wanted to flee to Iran after his rebellion against the Afghan government.”

A government source previously told Al Jazeera, “Al-Maulawi defected from the movement a few months ago over a dispute over coal mine exploration. He belongs to the Hazara ethnic group and was considered one of the most important Taliban leaders in the northern states.”

Immediately after the Taliban took control of the government following the withdrawal of US troops, the Taliban appointed 33-year-old Mawlawi Mahdi Mujahid as head of intelligence in the Shia province of Bamiyan, to which he belongs.

On June 3 last year, the Taliban government removed him from office due to tribal differences between the Hazaras and the nomadic Pashtun tribe and asked him to return to Kabul to take another position to be determined, but he refused and fortified himself with his supporters in his hometown in the Balkhab region of Sarbel state by demanding the presence of representatives of the Hazara minority in current government positions.