US lauds Pakistan’s role in Afghan reconciliation process

The acknowledgment, made in a statement released by Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, came a day after Afghanistan’s government announced that the reclusive Islamic cleric had died in April 2013.

In the statement, Mullah Omar’s family praised his dedication to jihad, or holy war, against the U.S.-led coalition and said it was the “duty of all Muslims” to follow his example by establishing Sharia law in Afghanistan. However, the group refused to give information where and when Omar had died.

At the Taliban meeting this week where Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour was named as the Islamist militant group’s new head, several senior figures in the movement, including the son and brother of late leader Mullah Omar, walked out in protest, foreign news agency Reuters reported on Friday. With the revelation that Mullah Omar is dead, Taliban members are suddenly finding new opportunities for disagreement and dissent.

The spat lead to Zakir, known for his brutal enforcing of fundamentalist Islam, quitting the organisation last year, before later being reinstated.

The Washington Post report claimed that, “In early 2011, then-CIA Director Leon Panetta confronted the president of Pakistan with a disturbing piece of intelligence”.

Pakistan’s overseas workplace stated a deliberate second spherical of conferences set for Friday can be delayed on the request of the Taliban management.

Those talks were indefinitely postponed after Mullah Omar’s death was announced this week. The statement confirmed Sirajuddin Haqqani as one of its newly-elected deputy leaders.

He was chosen following “a prolonged discussion” by the Taliban’s leadership council, it said. Afghan government officials said that he died two years ago in a hospital in Pakistan.

He swore allegiance to Mullah Omar before the Taliban took control of capital Kabul in 1996, when most other contemporary militia commanders joined the Taliban. The “Mullah Omar myth” has now shattered, and the Taliban is left to forge its own credibility.

The top contenders included Mansour and Omar’s son Mullah Yakoub, who sources said was favoured by some commanders but at 26 was considered too young and inexperienced for such a key role.

The handover of the Taliban leadership to the “moderate” Mullah Akhtar Mansour is being seen by some as a win for Pakistan, the insurgents’ historic backers, but could deepen splits within the movement.

The insurgents have ramped up their attacks on military and government targets since the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation combat mission ended in December.

Especially riled were members of the Taliban’s political office in Qatar, who insisted only they were empowered to negotiate.

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

The Haqqani network was founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani – an Afghan guerrilla leader bankrolled by the United States – to fight Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s.