Reports of Haqqani network founder’s death, but family denies

The longtime trusted deputy of former leader Mullah Omar is facing staunch internal resistance from some members of the Taliban’s ruling council, the Quetta Shura, who accuse Pakistan of hijacking the movement.

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.

Following Mansoor’s election, the Taliban also chose Sirajuddin Haqqani as its new deputy leader, the two Taliban figures said.

One Taliban commander who refused to be named because he has no authority to speak publicly for the movement, said the appointment of Mansoor would “help IS recruitment and I’m sure they will do their best to use this situation to the maximum”.

Latest report regarding Omar’s death is not the first time since the Taliban’s fall from power. His importance lay in his symbolism as the pure, incorruptible, pious and stalwart leader of the Taliban.

“There has always been Mullah Omar“. The US and its European allies became convinced of Mullah Omar’s death this week only because word had finally gotten out among senior Taliban leaders, who were telling anyone who would listen, a Western official said.

“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. He had not been seen in public since fleeing when the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001 after s U.S.-led invasion.

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. “The leadership of the Afghan Taliban must be inside Afghanistan if they are to have the legitimacy of leadership”.

The editorial wondered what impact the death of Mullah Omar will have on the Taliban and both Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Afghan government said he died in 2013.

A second round of peace talks between the Taliban and the government in Kabul had been scheduled to begin today in Pakistan.

The Taliban statement added that three days of mourning would be observed for Omar.

A Taliban official said that after the group’s ruling council had chosen a successor for Omar, the decision was supposed to be ratified by a college of religious clerics.

The peace process was plunged into uncertainty earlier Thursday when the Taliban indicated they were pulling out of the negotiations and Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry announced the talks, which were to have been hosted by Islamabad beginning Friday, had been postponed.

The Afghan government said it regretted the postponement of the second formal face-to-face meeting with the Taliban.

The White House on Friday urged the Taliban “to heed President Ghani’s call for reconciliation and make genuine peace with the Afghan government“.