Noorullah Noori

Mullah Noorullah Noori (Pashto: نورالله نوري [nʊrʊˈlɑ nʊˈri]; born 1967) is a militant and Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan since 7 September 2021. He was also the Taliban's Governor of Balkh Province during their first rule (1996–2001). Noori spent more than 12 years in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. Noori was released from the detention camp on May 31, 2014, along with the other four members of the so-called Taliban Five—Khairullah Khairkhwa, Abdul Haq Wasiq, Mullah Mohammad Fazl, and Mohammad Nabi Omari in a prisoner exchange that involved Bowe Bergdahl, and flown to Qatar.

2001 press reports describe General Rashid Dostum bringing Noori with him when he toured the ruins of the Qala-i-Jangi fortress, after over 400 captives died there in what is usually described as a failed prison uprising. Noori was reported to have ordered the Taliban fighters in his jurisdiction to peacefully surrender to Dostum's Northern Alliance forces.

Noori arrived at Guantanamo on January 11, 2002, and was held there for 12 years. The allegations used to justify his detention in Guantanamo asserted he was an interim Provincial Governor of Jalalabad, temporary governor of Mazar-i-Sharif and Governor of Balkh Province. Noorullah has been listed by the United Nations 1267 Committee since January 25, 2001.

Throughout the fall of 2011 and the winter of 2012, the United States conducted peace negotiations with the Taliban and widely leaked was that a key sticking point was the ongoing detention of Noorullah and four other senior Taliban. Negotiations hinged on a proposal to send the five men directly to Doha, Qatar, where they would be allowed to set up an official office for the Taliban.