Afghan government and intelligence sources told the BBC that Omar, who led the Taliban in Afghanistan, died two to three years ago.
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The intelligence official described Mullah Omar as having happened 28 months ago in a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. The U.S. toppled the regime for giving safe haven to al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden ahead of the 9/11 attacks.
“It is worth asking why this news has come out now, when we are two days away from the second round of peace talks”, said the official, who was not authorised to speak to the press.
Afghanistan authorities have confirmed that Omar is dead, and has been for at least two years. The Taliban appear to be maintaining a studied silence, but the Afghan presidential statement said grounds for the discussions are more solid now than before, and implored all insurgents to join the peace process.
According to a biography published by the Afghan Taliban, Omar was described as being actively involved in “jihadi activities”.
The confusion surrounding Omar’s state of health has left social media users in a frenzy – “Mullah Omar” is now trending on Twitter as people attempt to follow news on whether the man had really been killed.
“Even if he is dead, that doesn’t affect the Taliban movement”.
It was not immediately clear why his death was only being announced now and the Taliban could not be immediately reached for comment.
Omar, who was Afghanistan’s 11th head of state from 1996 to late 2001, was believed to have been living in Quetta and Karachi in Pakistan.
Another version of events was offered by The National Directorate of Security (NDS), Afghanistan’s spy agency, which claims that Mullah Omar died last November.
Michael Kugelman, a senior associate for South and Southeast Asia at the Woodrow Wilson worldwide Centre for Scholars, said Omar’s death would explain his silence when North Atlantic Treaty Organisation troops withdrew and when Ghani’s government took power.
A written message purportedly from Omar released earlier in July indicated he also approved of dialogue, but there was no way of independently confirming that the document was genuine.
A former Taliban minister who was once close to Mullah Omar said he died of tuberculosis and was “buried somewhere near the border on the Afghan side”.
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He is believed to have directed the Taliban insurgency against Afghanistan from Pakistan in the past 14 years, said the Afghan news service.
