RASC News Agency: In a rare and defiant public statement, Mahmood, the son of the late Mullah Dadullah, a notorious battlefield commander of the Taliban, has delivered a blistering condemnation of the group’s senior leadership. In a recently circulated video, Mahmood accuses top Taliban officials of systematic corruption, grave threats against his family, and an organized attempt to confiscate his father’s remaining assets. Released on Thursday, June 12, the video shows Mahmood visibly agitated, speaking in an urgent and forceful tone. He alleges that Taliban powerbrokers most notably Mullah Fazel Mazloom, the group’s current Deputy Minister of Defense have not only betrayed the legacy of his father but are now threatening his family with coercion and even potential violence to forcefully seize their property.
“These people who now rule in the name of Islam are nothing but thieves in turbans,” Mahmood declares in the video. “They want to take everything my father left behind. They have power and weapons, so they believe they can intimidate us into surrender.”cHe specifically accuses a Taliban figure named Niknazar of making direct threats, including vowing to bomb their home if the family refuses to comply. Such statements, Mahmood says, illustrate the true face of the Taliban’s governance rooted not in justice or religious values, but in fear, blackmail, and greed. In a bold move, Mahmood appeals directly to Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, urging him to “hear the voice of the Dadullah family” and intervene before internal rot consumes the group from within. He warned that ignoring such abuses would have severe consequences not just for his family, but for the Taliban’s already fractured legitimacy.
“If you stay silent while criminals use your name to steal and threaten, then you too are complicit,” he said, addressing Akhundzada. “You are no longer leading a movement you are sheltering bandits.” Mahmood also acknowledged Mullah Salak Akhund as one of the few remaining Taliban figures who had shown moral integrity by supporting the Dadullah family. But even this loyalty, he warned, was now under threat in a political environment increasingly hostile to dissent and moral restraint. His remarks offered a scathing indictment of the Taliban’s internal culture, portraying the group as driven by factionalism, self-enrichment, and betrayal rather than the Islamic principles they so often invoke.
“Shame on you all,” Mahmood said. “You’ve surrounded yourselves with liars, looters, and moral degenerates. You call yourselves leaders, but you behave like mafia bosses. My father gave his life for your cause. And this is how you repay him?” This is the first known instance of a close relative of a prominent Taliban commander publicly denouncing the group’s leadership. The video has gone viral across social media platforms, resonating with both critics and observers who see it as a glaring sign of growing tensions and deepening fault lines within the Taliban’s ruling structure. Analysts suggest that Mahmood’s outburst is symptomatic of broader unrest within Taliban ranks, especially among those who feel betrayed by the movement they once supported. What was once touted as an ideological brotherhood has morphed into a militarized kleptocracy a network of unaccountable warlords competing for land, power, and wealth under the guise of religious rule.
“The Taliban promised a new Islamic order, but all they’ve delivered is fear, theft, and oppression,” said a Kabul-based civil society activist, speaking under condition of anonymity. “Now even their own former families are exposing the lie.” As the Taliban continues to rule Afghanistan through repression, censorship, and the systematic erasure of rights particularly for women and minorities voices like Mahmood’s represent a rare but powerful rupture in the wall of silence and fear. His testimony underscores a critical reality: even within the Taliban’s inner circle, there is no immunity from the group’s brutality.
