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Afghanistan calls press conference on Mullah Omar amid rumours of his death

Mullah Omar led the Taliban to victory over rival Afghan militias in the civil war that followed the withdrawal of Soviet troops.

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The senior official told Anadolu Agency, on condition of anonymity, that Pakistan had informed the Afghan government about the death.

However, the Taliban has so far refrained from commenting.

Afghan Taliban this year published a surprise 5,000-word biography of Omar to mark his 19th year as the group’s chief.

Hamza says the group has enough evidence to prove that Omar is no more. The United States has offered a reward of $10 million for his capture.

The elusive leader of the hardline Islamist movement, which ruled Afghanistan in the late 1990s until it was toppled by a U.S.-led offensive in 2001, has not been seen in public for years, leading to speculation he has been dead for some time. The arrest of the Taliban’s second-in-command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, near Karachi in January 2010 had lend credence to theories that other top Afghan Taliban leaders are in hiding in Pakistan, reports the BBC.

Just two weeks ago, on July 15, Afghan Taliban had released Mullah Mohammad Omar’s message ahead of the Eid holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

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On July 7, The Afghan government conducted its first face-to-face talks with Taliban cadres supervised by American and Chinese representatives in the Pakistani hill station of Murree.

Afghan Taliban deny BBC report regarding Mullah Omar’s death