Mansoor has effectively commanded the movement for the three years since Mullah Omar’s previous deputy and co-founder of the movement, Mullah Abdul Baradar, was arrested by Pakistani authorities.
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Mullah Mansoor is only the Taliban’s second-ever leader, and has been given the title “Commander of the Faithful”, the supreme title of the late Mullah Omar, reported The Associated Press.
“Mansour is seen as a man of Pakistan – that is why severe differences are going on among the Taliban leadership”, a mid-level Taliban official told AFP.
“And when Yaqoob and Manan noticed this, they left the meeting”. It was in Kandahar in the 1990s that the Taliban were founded by Mullah Omar. A leader of the Haqqani Network that has ties with al-Qaeda, and is believed to be responsible for numerous deadly attacks in Afghanistan, Haqqani has a $10 million American bounty on his head.
The announcement of Omar’s death threw into disarray a fledgling peace process fostered by neighbouring Pakistan aimed at ending more than 13 years of war between the Taliban and the Western-backed government in Kabul.
Said to be in his mid-80s, Haqqani fought against the 1980s Soviet occupation of Afghanistan as a commander of the Hizb-e-Islami Yunus Khalis group but is more noted for the role his Haqqani network faction of the Taliban played in attacking U.S.-led foreign forces after they invaded Afghanistan in 2001. That could make it hard for the new No. 1 to deliver on any ceasefire that could emerge from future negotiations.
“Media outlets are circulating reports that peace talks will take place very soon, either in China or Pakistan”, the Taliban said in a separate statement posted on their website on Thursday. The Taliban said July 30 that he died from an unspecified illness.
“[Our] political office, are not aware of any such process”.
Haqqani’s son, Sirajuddin Haqqani, has long been thought to be in de facto control of the group and has just been announced as a deputy leader of the Taliban.
The divisions threaten a formal split in the Taliban. Mullah Mansoor has reportedly written a letter to the self-proclaimed caliph of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, warning his group to stay out of Afghanistan.
The Taliban has taken control of pockets of territory across the country since North Atlantic Treaty Organisation withdrew most of its forces at the end of 2014, leaving the Afghan army and police to quell the violence.
However, he later allied himself to the Taliban after they took power in Afghanistan in 1996.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has sought Pakistan’s help in bringing the Taliban to the negotiations since Islamabad is believed to wield influence over the group.
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But the power transfer has been met with skepticism both by the Taliban militants and Afghan officials.
