The foreign affairs adviser to Pakistan’s prime minister said Thursday that “all indicators” confirmed that the former Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a United States drone strike in the country’s southwestern Baluchistan province, where he was traveling under a false name with fake Pakistani identity documents.
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Haibatullah Akhunzada, who was named in a United Nations report past year as the Taliban’s former chief justice, is reported to be a respected religious scholar but little is known of his background.
Reached by telephone, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the Taliban were launching an investigation to learn who was distributing the recording, in which the person identified as new leader Haibatullah Akhundzada vowed to not to negotiate.
The Taliban named their new leader four days after Mullah Mansour was killed in a USA drone strike while driving through Pakistan. This was a bold action, marking the first time an American drone strike had been ordered in the Taliban’s home base, rather than in Pakistan’s tribal areas that border Afghanistan. At the same time, the lack of a unified leadership is keeping the Taliban unable to negotiate, and with the U.S. assassination exacerbating that, one can not but come to the conclusion that Afghan and USA officials aren’t seriously interested in peace talks.
Akhunzada severed as the deputy chief of Taliban and was a member of the leadership council of the Taliban.
“Regardless of who leads them, the Taliban have zero incentive to negotiate on their determination to restore their brand of Islamic rule”.
Analysts believe that a change in the Taliban command will not help the Afghan peace process and can even intensify the war in Afghanistan.
Two Taliban commanders had provided the audio to reporters late on Wednesday, saying it was an official statement.
The faction’s leader had chose to split from the Taliban after news of the death of Mullah Omar surfaced last summer, citing non-consensus amongst the group in choosing a successor.
US President Barack Obama, who authorized the drone strikes, had confirmed the death Monday.
“Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada has been appointed as the new leader of the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) after a unanimous agreement in the shura (the supreme council), and all the members of shura pledged allegiance to him”, the Taliban statement said. Omar had held the position since the inception of the movement in 1994.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, an implacable foe of USA forces, and Mullah Yakoub, the son of Taliban founder Mullah Omar, were appointed his deputies.
The spokesman also confirmed that Mullah Habatullah was not on the USA list of designated terrorists. He went on to become the group’s “chief justice” after a US-led invasion toppled the Taliban government in 2001. “We were not against Mullah Akhtar Mansour but the way he was selected, and yet again they sit together and choose one another”.
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Both of the new deputies had earlier been thought to be the main contenders for the top job. The other is the son of Mullah Omar, Mullah Mohammad Yaqoub, who controls the Taliban military commissions for 15 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. He is also suspected of coordinating and participating in cross-border attacks on USA and coalition forces in Afghanistan from Pakistan. “It shows that the Taliban are keen not to have a new conflict”, said Thomas Ruttig of the Afghanistan Analysts Network.
