While finally confirming the death of Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansoor in a United States drone strike, Pakistan on Thursday said Washington’s action had scuttled efforts to bring the insurgent group onto the negotiating table.
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Aziz said Mullah Mansour was not opposed to peace talks.
The Taliban has made strong battlefield gains against government forces in recent months, driving back Afghan troops from key positions and launching a string of bombings in Kabul. The Taliban’s official spokesman later said the audio was not cleared for release and they were trying to determine who gave it to reporters.
“The body will not be handed over till we get the DNA report”, he said.
Akhundzada is believed to be in his fifties, hails from Afghanistan’s southern province of Kandahar.
Omar died in 2013, but his death was kept secret for two years, with Mansour issuing statements in his name – a revelation that helped fuel internal opposition and splintered the group into rival factions.
Toner refused to acknowledge that the Washington no longer trusted Islamabad as an ally and conveyed United States concerns on the alleged presence of certain “terrorist” groups in Pakistan.
Mansour had led the Taliban since last summer, when the death of the movement’s founder, the one-eyed Mullah Mohammad Omar became public.
Nevertheless, Akhundzada is considered a hard-liner and his appointment was joined by two other promotions, those of Muhammad Yaqoob, the 20-something son of long-time Taliban leader Mullah Omar, who died at some point in the last few years, and Sirajuddin Haqqani, of the Haqqani network, a Taliban offshoot the US recognizes as its own terrorist organization. Mansour had been Mullah Omar’s deputy before assuming command.
“He may therefore be able to integrate the younger and more militant generation”, he said.
Last Saturday’s drone attack, the first-known American assault on a top Afghan Taleban leader on Pakistani soil, sent shock waves through the insurgent movement that had seen a resurgence under Mansour.
On Tuesday, according to the source, Haqqani rejected the leadership position in favor of Akhundzada. Akhundzada was chosen as his deputy at the time. There is a $10 million bounty offered by the State Department for Haqqani. It held captured US soldier Bowe Bergdahl before he was repatriated in a prisoner swap.
“In the short term, we anticipate the Taliban will continue to pursue an agenda of violence”, he said.
US President Barack Obama, who authorized the drone strikes, had confirmed the death Monday.
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“While expressing his serious concerns over the said drone strike, the Chief of the Army Staff said such acts of sovereignty violations are detrimental to relations between both countries and are counter-productive for the ongoing peace process for regional stability”, army said.
