(MENAFN- Arab Times) Taleban supremo Mullah Omar died two years ago in Pakistan, Afghanistan said on Wednesday, after unnamed government and militant sources reported the demise of the reclusive warrior-cleric. The insurgents have not officially confirmed the death of their supreme leader, who has not been seen publicly since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan that toppled the Taleban government in Kabul. Earlier, the Afghan government said it was investigating reports of the death of Mullah Omar, a presidential spokesman said Wednesday, amid frenzied speculation about the rumoured demise of the reclusive warrior-cleric.
Rumours of Omar's illhealth and even death have regularly surfaced in the past, but the latest claims - just two days before fresh peace talks with the insurgents - mark the first such confirmation from the Afghan government. "The government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, based on credible information, confirms that Mullah Mohammad Omar, leader of the Taleban died in April 2013 in Pakistan," a statement from the presidential palace said. Haseeb Sediqi, the spokesman for the National Directorate of Security, told AFP that Omar died in a Karachi hospital "under mysterious circumstances".
Omar's death would mark a significant blow to an almost 14-year insurgency, which is riven by internal divisions and threatened by the rise of the Islamic State group in South Asia. The announcement also cast doubt over the second round of negotiations between the insurgents and Afghan government, which are expected to take place in Pakistan on Friday. "Certainly this news will affect the talks," Rahimullah Yousufzai, a Pakistan-based expert on Afghan affairs, told AFP.
"If their most important leader is dead, differences will emerge within the (Taleban) over talks." The Taleban appear to be maintaining a studied silence, but the Afghan presidential statement said grounds for the discussions are more solid now than before, and implored all insurgents to join the peace process.
Confirmation of Omar's death could trigger a power struggle within the Taleban, observers say, with insurgent sources claiming his son Mohammad Yakoub and current deputy Mullah Mansour are both top contenders to replace him. Wednesday's official announcement comes after unnamed government and militant sources told media, including AFP, the one-eyed leader died two or three years ago - and after the Afghan government said it was investigating reports of his death. "We can confirm that Mullah Omar died two years ago" in Pakistan due to an illness," a senior official in Afghanistan's national unity government told AFP earlier.
"He was buried in Zabul province (in southern Afghanistan)," said the official, citing Afghan intelligence sources. The insurgents in April published a descriptive biography of the "charismatic" supreme leader in a surprise move apparently aimed at countering the creeping influence of the Islamic State group within their ranks. The Taleban have reportedly seen defections to IS in recent months, with some members expressing disaffection with the low-profile leader Omar.
The biography, posted on the Taleban's official website to commemorate Omar's apparent 19th year as supreme leader, tried to dispel speculation he had died by describing him as actively involved in "jihadi activities". And earlier this month in a message released in Omar's name, the leader was quoted as hailing the peace process as "legitimate". The comments, the first reputedly made by Omar on the nascent dialogue, eased concerns at the time that the process lacked the leadership's backing.
But a member of the Quetta Shura, the Taleban's governing council, voiced doubt over whether that message - released just before the Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Fitr - was from Mullah Omar himself. "For the last few years he has not attended any big gathering, neither has he sent any audio message to his followers," the member, who requested anonymity, told AFP on Wednesday.
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