Mullah Omar’s deputy to ‘succeed’ him as Taliban leader

Two militant commanders said that Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Mansour had been chosen to replace the one-eyed leader, as the hardline movement confirmed his death.

Hafiz Saeed, leader of Pakistan's religious group Jamaatud Dawa leads funeral prayers for Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar at a mosque in Lahore, Pakistan, on July 30, 2015. Ahmed Ali/AP Photo

PESHAWAR // The Taliban have chosen Mullah Omar’s deputy to replace him, two militant commanders said on Thursday, as the group confirmed the supreme leader’s death.

In a statement, the group said that Mullah Omar had died of “sickness”, citing family members. It came a day after the Afghan intelligence agency said that the one-eyed militant had passed away in Pakistan more than two years ago.

Meanwhile, Islamabad said that a fresh round of peace talks between the militants and the Afghan government – planned for Friday in Pakistan – has been postponed.

It said that the Taliban leadership had asked for the postponement “in view of the reports regarding the death of Mullah Omar and the resulting uncertainty”.

Mullah Omar’s deputy, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, was appointed the Taliban’s new leader at a Wednesday night meeting of the movement’s top representatives, many of whom are based in the Pakistani city of Quetta, according to two militant commanders who were present at the shura, or gathering.

“The shura held outside Quetta unanimously elected Mullah Mansour as the new emir of the Taliban,” said one of the commanders.

However, the Taliban’s official spokesman said in a statement early on Thursday that its official team of negotiators based in Doha was “not aware of this process” in Pakistan.

Siraj Haqqani, leader of the powerful Haqqani militant faction, will be a deputy to Mansour, the two commanders present at the Quetta shura added.

Mansour will be only the Taliban’s second supreme leader since Mullah Omar, an elusive figure rarely seen in public, founded the ultraconservative movement in the 1990s.

Mullah Omar had not been seen publicly since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan that toppled the Taliban government in Kabul.

The Taliban statement did not say when he died but that “his health condition deteriorated in the last two weeks” and “not for a single day did he go to Pakistan”.

It said that three days of religious ceremonies would be held “to pray for [his] soul”.

News of his death comes just before Taliban and Afghan officials were due to sit down for a second round of talks aimed at ending the militants’ near 14-year fight against the government in Kabul.

Afghan officials met Taliban cadres earlier this month in Murree – a holiday town in the hills north of Islamabad – for their first face-to-face talks aimed at ending the bloody insurgency.

They had agreed to meet again in the coming weeks, drawing international praise, and Afghan officials pledged to press for a ceasefire in the second round.

But on Thursday the militants distanced themselves from the peace process, casting doubt over its possible effectiveness.

“Media outlets are circulating reports that peace talks will take place very soon ... either in the country of China or Pakistan,” the Taliban said in an English-language statement posted on their website.

“[Our] political office ... [is] not aware of any such process.”

The Pakistani foreign ministry said on Thursday that it “and other friendly countries of Afghanistan hope that the Taliban leadership will stay engaged in the process of peace talks in order to promote a lasting peace in Afghanistan.”

Mansour’s appointment is unlikely to please everyone in the Taliban. Key field commanders have criticised the peace process and vowed to fight for power, rather than negotiate it.

Several have left the movement altogether, pledging allegiance to ISIL in the Middle East and targeting the Taliban itself in a worrying new development.

In a reminder of the threat posed by the Taliban however, the movement this week captured a district in the southern province of Helmand that foreign troops had struggled to secure for years.

District officials said that the Taliban had wrested control of the Now Zad district on Wednesday after two days of fighting.

Residents of the area said that bodies of security personnel and Taliban fighters were lying in the streets after the battle.

The Taliban has taken control of pockets of territory across the country since Nato withdrew most of its forces at the end of 2014, leaving the Afghan army and police to quell the violence. Thousands of people are killed each year.

* Agence France-Presse with additional reporting by Reuters