He became the first elected president of Afghanistan in 2004: Who is Hamid Karzai?

Afghan politician of Pashtun origin, born in 1957. His father, Abdul Ahad Karzai, served as deputy speaker of parliament in the 1960s. His grandfather, Khayr Muhammad Khan, served during the war of independence in Afghanistan in 1919 and also served as Vice President in the senate. His uncle, Habibullah Karzai, was Afghanistan's representative at the UN.

He studied primary and secondary school in Afghanistan. He completed his master's degree in Political Science at Himachal Pradesh University in Shimla, India, between 1979 and 1983.

During the Soviet War in Afghanistan in the 1980s, he volunteered to work for the anti-communist mujahideen and moved to Pakistan. The Mujahideen were supported by the USA, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran. In this process, Karzai became a mujahid working for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Hamid Karzai (born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan politician who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from December 2004 to September 2014. He previously served as Chairman of the Afghan Interim Administration from December 2001 to July 2002. He is the chief (khān) of the Popalzai Durrani tribe of Pashtuns in Kandahar Province.

He returned to Afghanistan in October 1988 after the withdrawal of Soviet forces. When President Najibullah's Soviet-backed government collapsed in 1992, the Islamic State of Afghanistan was established by the vote of Afghan political parties under the Peshawar Agreement. After President Najibullah resigned in 1992, he worked with the first mujahideen leader in Kabul.

He served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of Burhannedin Rabani. During this period, Karzai was arrested on charges of spying for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who allegedly acted as a mediator between Hekmatyar's forces and the Rabbani Government. He escaped from Kabul in a vehicle provided by Hekmatyar.

Karzai's father, Abdul Ahad Karzai, was shot and killed while walking home from the mosque in the city of Quetta. Reports showed that the Taliban carried out this assassination. After this incident, Karzai decided to work with the Northern Alliance under the leadership of Ahmed Shah Massoud.

After 9/11 and the US invasion of Afghanistan, an interim administration and a 29-person board of directors were elected in accordance with the Bonn Agreement on December 5, 2001. Karzai was elected president and sworn in as leader on December 20.

He ran as a candidate in the October 2004 presidential elections and defeated 22 candidates, becoming the first democratically elected president of Afghanistan.

Eşraf Gani was elected as his replacement in the 2014 elections.