Atta Muhammad Nur (also spelled Ata Mohammed Noor; ; born 1964) is an Afghan exiled politician and former militant who served as the Governor of Balkh Province in Afghanistan from 2004 to January 25, 2018. An ethnic Tajik, he worked to educate the Mujahideen after the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, gaining the nickname "The Teacher". He then became a mujahideen resistance commander for the Jamiat-e Islami against the Soviets. When the Taliban government took power in late 1996, Noor served as a commander in the United Front (Northern Alliance) under Ahmad Shah Massoud against the Taliban. He led operations in the Balkh area. In 2004, President Hamid Karzai appointed him as the governor of Balkh province. He has been described by The Economist as being "immensely wealthy." He was removed from the position of Provincial Governor by President Ashraf Ghani in January 2018. During the 2021 Taliban offensive, Nur, along with Abdul Rashid Dostum, fled Mazar-e-Sharif to Uzbekistan in August 2021. Mujahideen and Northern Alliance Born in Balkh province, Atta Mohammed joined the mujahideen fighting the Soviet presence in Afghanistan in the 1980s and became affiliated with the Jamiat-e Islami party. By 1992, he had become one of the most powerful Mujahideen commanders in Northern Afghanistan. Following the fall of Mohammed Najibullah's Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, while remaining a Jamiat commander, he also joined Abdul Rashid Dostum's National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan, becoming a deputy leader of that movement during its first congress on June 1, 1992. However, ideological differences with Dostum soon emerged, and in 1993, he split from Dostum. In January 1994, Atta Noor fought to consolidate the Islamic State of Afghanistan's control over the capital of Balkh, Mazar-i-Sharif, against Dostum's Junbish militia. But Dostum struck first, mobilizing 10,000 men and defeating Atta's forces. When the Taliban took power in late 1997, Atta Noor served as a commander in the anti-Taliban United Front (Northern Alliance) under Ahmad Shah Massoud. Atta Noor led operations in the Balkh area. Dostum had turned into an ally against the Taliban. On November 9, 2001, Atta Noor's forces and those of Dostum drove the Taliban from Mazar-i-Sharif. Islamic Republic After the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan under the Hamid Karzai administration, Ustad Atta's forces clashed with those of Dostum several times. From 2002 onwards, with the support of Jamiat-e Islami allies occupying key positions in the Afghan Transitional Administration and