The editorial wondered what impact the death of Mullah Omar will have on the Taliban and both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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But his death appeared to cast a pall on the fragile peace process aimed at ending the long war, with the Taliban distancing itself from the second round of talks slated for Friday. Replying to questions about the reports during a weekly briefing in Islamabad, foreign ministry Spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said Pakistan was still trying to find out if the reports were true. But the Pakistani state seems to have been caught yet again with its hand in the jihadist cookie jar.
In 2010 his name came up in a freakish episode in which an impostor claiming to be Mansour duped US and British intelligence, reportedly receiving tens of thousands of dollars from them in goodwill payments, before disappearing.
The Taliban has been operating in both Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan over the past years.
As deputy leader already, he takes up the top role from a position of strength, but this is the Taliban’s first leadership transition and it may take some time to see how strong his grip on power is.
It describes Mansoor as an “active director” of the jihad, or holy war, for some years. “They are not fighting they are just talking on the radio”.
Mullah Omar’s replacement, Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Mansour, appointed Sirajuddin Haqqani as his deputy, underscoring the links between the Afghan insurgency and the Haqqani network, who are believed to be close to Pakistan’s feared Inter Services Intelligence.
Under Omar’s leadership, the Taliban offered safe haven to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, precipitating the U.S. military action in Afghanistan after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.
While Mansour was close to his predecessor, he does not have Omar’s aura of religious authority and it is notable the Taliban announcement did not confer the title “leader of the faithful”, by which the old chief was known. The Taliban reacted by pulling out of peace talks in that were agreed to be scheduled to take place on Friday.
Taliban had on Thursday confirmed the death of its long-time supremo Mullah Omar.
After the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban, he was put in charge of political and military affairs in the Supreme Council, a seven-member body which makes major decisions.
After all, this change of heart vis-a-vis the jihadists, has been peddled by Pakistani officials since the day after 9/11.
Pakistan cited reports of Omar’s death as the reason for the delay in negotiations, amid fears they could trigger a potentially bloody succession battle and further deepen divisions within the militant movement.
Mansour’s appointment is unlikely to please everyone in the Taliban.
Yaqoob and his uncle Abdul Manan, Omar’s younger brother, were among more than a dozen Taliban figures who walked out of Wednesday’s leadership meeting held in the western Pakistani city of Quetta, according to three people who were at the shura, or gathering.
Unlike the Mujahideen of the 1980-90s, the Taliban is an organisationally weaker, and perhaps, more fractious entity. It was in Kandahar in the 1990s that the Taliban were founded by Mullah Omar.
The Taliban’s political back has been broken.
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Several have left the movement altogether, pledging allegiance to Islamic State in the Middle East and targeting the Taliban itself in a worrying new development.
