Shir Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, son of late Haji Padshah Khan, was born in 1338 in the village of Abbas village, Baraki Barak district of Logar province.

He completed his primary education in the village Masjid and Omar Khan school in Kabul and is a passed out from Kabul Military School.
He was sent to India by Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan along with other Afghan students for higher military education, and after graduating in 1981, he joined the Jihad front against the Soviet occupation.

He served as a military instructor in Jamiat-e-Islami and Ittihad-e-Islami parties, and in 1985 he was the military commander of the southwestern region of the Ittihad-e-Islami. He has been involved in numerous operations in Qalat, Kandahar Airport, Lashkar Gah and other important operations, and has since met Mullah Burjan, Mullah Mushr, Mullah Mohammad Rabbani and other former Taliban leaders.

In 1990, he was appointed as the military in charge of the Islamic Revolutionary Movement and served in this position until the fall of the Najibullah regime.

He stayed at home during the partisan conflicts and joined the Taliban Movement in the uprising. During the Taliban rule, he served first as Kandahar’s Deputy External Communications and then in Kabul as Deputy Foreign Minister and then Deputy Minister of Public Health.
Following the US invasion of the country, he resumed military and political struggle; serving as a member and then deputy of the Taliban Political Commission, and from August 2015 to January 2019 as the head of the Taliban’s political office.

Mr. Stanekzai led the negotiating team with the Americans while serving on the Leadership Council, Deputy negotiating team.

Mr. Stanekzai is currently serving as Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs following the end of the US occupation, while the Islamic Emirate has full control of the country.