Afghanistan said July 29 that Omar died more than two years ago in a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan.
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The statement, which was translated from Pashto, said Mansour, who had been a close and trusted friend of Mullah Omar, was announced as the new Amirul Momineen (the leader the faithful) after long consultations and discussions among the leadership council of the Taliban and Islamic scholars.
Now the new elected leader Mansoor has been given the same respect as Mullah Omar.
The report highlighted that Mullah Omar, the secretive leader of the Taliban, spent the final years of his life in “remarkable obscurity” and his death was confirmed only by “chatter” among Taliban officials.
Mansour, Omar’s longtime deputy who has been effectively in charge for years, favors talks to bring an end to more than 13 years of war. The peace talks between the representatives of Afghan government and the group were suspended on the request of Taliban. Mansour was the Taliban leader’s deputy at the time. Critics speculate that this may convince him to revive the peace talks.
The new leader of the Taliban is seen as close to Pakistan, which is believed to have sheltered and supported the insurgents through the war, now in its 14th year.
Source familiar with the development told PTI that Mullah Akhtar was the de facto chief of the Taliban and was leading the group since death of Mullah Omar in April 2013. The report said both had previously had access to Mullah Omar, and they began telling people that they believed they were being kept away because he was dead.
As well as fighting on the ground and coming under pressure from all sides to negotiate, the Taliban also faces the challenge of halting the expansion of the Isis group in Afghanistan, which has been recruiting disaffected fighters.
The Taliban’s first handover of power comes at a time when the US-led Afghan government has been trying to jumpstart peace negotiations as it struggles to contain the resurgent insurgency.
According to Mujda, Pakistani officials who were handling the talks were at odds with Mansoor, who insisted that the Taliban’s political office in Qatar take the lead in any negotiations.
Haqqani Network, founded by Jalaluddin, the network is considered the most unsafe faction in the Taliban army in Afghanistan.
The Taliban statement on 31 July confirmed Sirajuddin Haqqani as one of its newly elected deputy leaders.
That led to a Taliban insurgency that continues to this day, even as U.S. and other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation troops are drawing down their numbers in Afghanistan. “Pakistan had always denied that Mullah Omar was based on its soil”, said the daily. Haqqani has a U.S. bounty of $10 million on his head as a leader of the brutal and extremist Haqqani network, which is allied with al-Qaida.
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“He is very Experienced in the Taliban rank, and: has a broad knowledge about the protest movement, “Said Waheed Muzhda, a Kabul-based analyst who served in the 1996-2001 Taliban foreign ministry’s diet”.
