Death of Taliban leader roils Afghan politics — AP News Guide

But instead of rallying the group around a new leader, the disclosure appears to have widened rifts that threaten to fragment Afghanistan’s most formidable fighting force. The question is: “What lies behind his dark glasses?” The new leader of the Afghan Taliban vowed to cont…

The Taliban’s new leader also pointed out that the “Taliban political commission will work” along with other commissions that keeps hope alive for the revival of the suspended talks between the Afghan government and the insurgent group. At any rate, the Taliban will surely be too distracted to focus on negotiations anytime soon, especially because the confirmation of Mullah Omar’s death will intensify a growing rivalry between Mansour, the Taliban’s second in command, and Muhammad Yaqoob, Mullah Omar’s eldest son. “I have no differences with new Amir Mullah Akhtar Mansoor and all such reports are baseless”.

“My particular recommendation to all members of the Islamic Emirate is to maintain their internal unity and discipline”, the statement quotes Haqqani as saying, using the Taliban’s name for Afghanistan.

Reports say that the imposter made away with a significant amount of money and was never seen again.

Mannan, a key member of the Taliban council (shura), urged pro-Taliban religious leaders to focus on resolving the deepening splits within the movement rather than backing and pledging allegiance to one leader.

As the leadership crisis deepened, the Taliban released a statement from one of its most notorious commanders pledging loyalty to Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor, who was chosen to lead after the death of the Taliban’s reclusive, one-eyed founder was announced last week. The Haqqanis are widely believed to be close to Pakistan’s ISI. “He seemed a natural leader”.

Taliban spokesman Mullah Abdul Manan Niazi said those who elected Mullah Mansoor had not followed the rules.

He was picked by Mullah Omar as the Taliban minister of civil aviation and put in charge of the airports all over Afghanistan. “He told his people not to listen to Mansour, and that the Amir is dead”, a senior Afghan official said.

According to journalist Sami Yousafza, the simple gesture showed him to be rich, by comparison with others, and generous.

The Afghanistan Islamic Movement Fidai Mahaz, a splinter group of the Taliban group in Afghanistan has claimed that the Supreme Leader of the Taliban group Mullah Mohammad Omar was poisoned to death. His death was confirmed by the Taliban on Thursday. On Friday, Taliban commanders who attended the meeting that chose Mansoor as Omar’s successor told Reuters that Omar’s son and brother had walked out of the gathering in protest.

“That is a brilliant entry in his ledger”.

His address did not explicitly rule out future contact for the government.

Afghanistan had said Omar died in April, 2013 in a Pakistani hospital, but Pakistani officials could not confirm that. The rival Islamic extremist group, which already controls about a third of Syria and Iraq with affiliates in Egypt and Libya, has established a small foothold in Afghanistan and is actively recruiting disillusioned Taliban fighters, according to Afghan government and U.S. military officials.

An intelligence source, who did not wish to be identified, also said that Jalaluddin Haqqani had died of multiple ailments many months back and had been interred in Khost province. The Afghan government may be ready to sit down with the Taliban, but it’s increasingly unclear what the Taliban is.

It is hard to gauge whether the challengers have much of a following or whether they pose a significant threat to Mansour’s leadership.