Tayyab Agha’s resignation came amid amid growing rift among the Taliban leaders regarding the appoint of Mullah Mohammad Omar’s successor.
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Mohammad Tayab Agha, head of the Taliban’s political office, said in a statement that the movement had made a “historic mistake” by concealing Mullah Omar’s death and by choosing his successor outside of Afghanistan.
The Taliban have not revealed when Omar died but the Afghan government said he passed away in Karachi in April 2013.
A statement by President Ashraf Ghani’s office said Kabul would not accept any “parallel political structure” opposed to the government, a clear reference to the Taliban, which calls itself the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan“. Credible reports note that Omar’s family refused to give its imprimatur to Mansour’s leadership.
The footage is seen as an attempt to bolster support for Mullah Mansour, whose appointment has been questioned by some senior Taliban members.
It comes as letters seen by the Independent in the past nine months show that two senior Taliban figures, Mullah Mansour Dadullah and Mullah Abdul Qayum Zakir had written to followers urging them to rebel against Mansour.
For the Afghan government the biggest problem is that the peace talks could suffer. Even while Omar’s death remained unconfirmed, there was considerable speculation that Yaqub had emerged as another legitimate locus of power within the insurgent group.
Another commander linked to the Quetta Shura, the Taliban’s ruling council based in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, criticised Mansour’s selection process.
The announcement got here amid studies that the Taliban management is in disarray following the dying of its former chief Mullah Omar. “We were kept in dark, and now we don’t know who to follow”. While we continue to await independent confirmation of this event from a more credible source, Tolo reports that Afghan security personnel have noted considerable infighting within various Taliban factions.
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The Taliban’s official website was once limited to messages shared by Mullah Omar, or in his name, on special occasions but since the news of his death it has been used to publish daily articles intended at consolidating support around Mullah Mansoor. Given the aura that surrounded Mullah Umar’s towering personality, it will be very hard for the new Taliban chief Mullah Mansoor to fill the void left by Umar and keep the Taliban movement united. And in the end, more civil war in Afghanistan followed by the possibility of Islamic State moving in is worse for the U.S. than a de facto Taliban regime.
