After years of failed initiatives, peace talks finally began between Taliban and Afghanistan, with Pakistan and China serving as guarantors in the peace deal.
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On Wednesday, Afghan officials said Omar died in April 2013 in a hospital in the southern Pakistani city Karachi, but left open speculation that the death carried what they called a ” suspicious nature”. And like Mullah Omar, details about his exact age, family and whereabouts are largely unknown outside the secretive upper echelons of the group.
The elusive leader had not appeared in public since the Taliban regime’s overthrow in Afghanistan 14 years ago and made no video or authenticated audio statements in that time.
Mansoor, who has only been given the title of Supreme Commander and not spiritual leader, is considered a moderate and pragmatic.
The Haqqani network has been blamed for some of the most high-profile terrorist attacks in Kabul in recent years.
He is a leader of the Haqqani Network, which has ties with al-Qaeda and is believed to be responsible for numerous deadly attacks in Afghanistan.
“After [Omar’s] death the leadership council and Islamic scholars of the country, after long consultations, appointed his close and trusted friend and his former deputy Mullah Akhtar Mansour as the leader”, the Taliban said in a Pashto-language statement posted on their website.
There are already rumblings of discontent – some Taliban are unhappy at the thought Mansour may have deceived them for over a year about Omar’s death and others accuse him of riding roughshod over the process to appoint a successor.
The Afghan government said it regretted the postponement of the second formal face-to-face meeting with the Taliban.
A religious cleric known for issuing decrees on behalf of the Taliban, Maulvi Haibatullah Akhund served as deputy to Chief Justice Maulvi Abdul Hakim Akhund and was supervising courts’ administrative affairs until the Taliban was removed from power in late 2001.
Pakistan cited the reports of Omar’s death as the reason for delaying the talks, because of concerns that a battle for succession could further deepen discord between the Taliban’s numerous factions.
Despite suspicions about his whereabouts, the search for Mullah Omar always took a backseat to the hunt for Usama bin Laden, who was killed by a team of Navy SEALs in May 2011.
A number of senior leaders like Tayab Agha, the political head in Qatar, and Mullah Qaum Zakir, an influential military commander, wanted Mullah Yaqoob, the 26-year-old son of Mullah Omar to take up the mantle of his father.
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Mansour developed his relationship with Pakistani intelligence during the 1980s, when he fought against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, Hasibullah Fawzi, a senior member of Afghanistan government’s High Peace Council, said by phone.
