Afghan Taliban on Wednesday formally announced the appointment of Maulvi Haibatullah as their new leader after the death of Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a USA drone strike in Balochistan province a couple of days back.
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The Afghan Taliban under its new leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, has rejected peace talks as a viable solution to bringing the Afghan insurgency to an end, and have said that fighting will continue.
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, shattering the nascent peace process that had begun last summer.
Little is known about the leader except that Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada is a religious scholar and former head of the Taliban courts, and known for announcing numerous “fatwas”, media reported. Sirajuddin Haqqani and Mullah Yaqoob were appointed deputy leaders of the movement.
Akhundzada, who is believed to be around 60 years of age and a member of the powerful Noorzai tribe, was a close aide to Omar. “You can call it a strategy by Taliban who selected a symbolic head but kept the real power manager behind the scene”, he said.
“The new leader’s appointment is a good opportunity for the Taliban to return to peace talks and rebuild their country”, Afghan presidential spokesman Dawa Khan Menapal told AFP.
He said just before the attack, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the U.S. and China had agreed in a meeting on May 18 that politically negotiated settlement was the most viable option.
Akhundzada’s photo was posted on the Taliban’s official Twitter account accompanied by a capture of his newly-assumed full title of Emir-ul-Momineen Sheikh ul Quran, or “commander of the faithful, scholar of the Koran”.
Meanwhile, 10 people were killed and four others injured Wednesday morning when a suicide bomber detonated explosives in Kabul, Najib Danish, a deputy spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry tells CNN.
The new leader worked closely with Mansour, according to Michael Semple, professor at the institute for the study of conflict transformation at Queen’s University Belfast.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan government on Thursday claimed cancellation of 2,35,000 fake National Identity Cards (NICs) after the killing of Taliban leader Maullah Akhtar Mansour, who carried a fake Pakistani card.
But there was hesitation, as senior Taliban figures chose Akhundzada only after two other candidates were ruled out, said two members of the council who attended the meeting.
Pakistan has refused to confirm the death of Mullah Mansoor in the U.S. drone strike even after U.S. President Barack Obama and the Afghan government have both announced his death. “His death has added to the complexity of the Afghan conflict”, he said adding that the drone strike was a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty as well as breach of principles of the UN Charter governing the conduct of states.
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Pakistani authorities are believed to have given shelter and support to some Taliban leaders over the Afghan border.
