The former head of the Aviation Administration of Afghanistan, Shah Mahmood Habibi was arrested by the Taliban on 24th September,2022. Habibi was the head of the Afghan Aviation Administration in the Ashraf Ghani regime and left the country after the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021.
A Kabul-based digital media house Zawia News has confirmed the arrest of Habibi.
Habibi was appointed as the head of the Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority by the then president of Afghanistan Mohammad Ashraf Ghani in 2017.
He later left the country in 2021, following the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban.
Habibi returned to Afghanistan after he was requested by the Taliban Returnees Commission to return to the country. The Taliban formed the Commission to bring back all the leaders of the previous Afghan Republic to Afghanistan.
Why was Shah Mahmood Habibi arrested
Shah Mahmood was arrested by the Taliban on the charges of aiding the United States in the assassination of Al-Qaeda chief Ayman-al-Zawahiri.
In Kabul, Ayman-al-Zawahiri was killed in a US drone strike on July 31, 2022.
The Taliban has said that Shah Mahmood had technical know-how of Afghanistan’s airspace and had facilitated the US in launching a coordinated drone strike on Zawahiri’s location with accuracy.
