Mullah Mansour was killed in a United States drone strike in Pakistan’s Balochistan province of Pakistan on Saturday.
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After the selection of a spiritual leader for their new mullah instead of a battle-hardened jihadi, the Obama administration is holding onto hope they might convince the terror group to accept a peace deal with the Afghan government.
The American drone strike killing Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour is a sign of the USA exasperation with Pakistan’s duplicitous game as it has relied on the Taliban and the Haqqanis to protect its interests in Afghanistan and prevent India from increasing its influence there, an editorial in a leading daily said on Thursday. The use of force for past 15 years has failed to deliver peace.
The administration remains committed to its strategy of pressing for peace talks while providing funds and military advice, training and equipment to Afghan forces, said Defence Secretary Ash Carter, who indicated the USA troop drawdown would resume.
Akhunzada severed as the deputy chief of Taliban and was a member of the leadership council of the Taliban.
Pakistani authorities have always been accused by both Kabul and Washington of giving shelter and support to some Taliban leaders – an accusation that Islamabad denies.
“This understanding has not been respected”, Mr Aziz added and recalled that in July 2015, direct peace talks between the representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban were scuttled at a key stage when the issue of reduction in violence was to be discussed.
Taliban new leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada is seen in an undated photograph, posted on a Taliban twitter feed on May 25, 2016, and identified separately by several Taliban officials, who declined be named.
Mere hours after the Taliban announced its new leader, a suicide blast attack on a bus full of judiciary department employees claimed 11 lives and injured 10 people in the Afghan capital of Kabul.
Pakistani officials had blamed that disruption on the Afghan intelligence agency.
A number of Taliban commanders opposed Mansour’s appointment, as he did not belong to the Noorzai tribe that Mullah Omar hailed from.
He went on to become the group’s “chief justice” after a US-led invasion toppled the Taliban government in 2001.
“Prospects for the Afghan peace process remain poor”.
“This attack was carried out as revenge for the killing of six innocent prisoners in Kabul”, said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, in reference to the hanging of six of the movement’s militants at a Kabul prison earlier this month on terrorism charges. “It shows that the Taleban is keen not to have a new conflict”, said Mr Thomas Ruttig of the Afghanistan Analysts Network.
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Sartaj Aziz said that in our view there is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan.
