Taliban admits covering up Mullah Omar death
The Afghan militant group of Taliban has admitted to having covered up longtime leader Mullah Omar’s death for two years.
The group published its new leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour’s biography on its website on Monday, thereby admitting that the former leader died on April 23, 2013.
The biography said the concealment had been decided on by "several key members of the supreme leading council” of the Taliban among others.
The Taliban ruled the country between 1996 and 2001 under Mullah Omar.
"The Taliban had to conceal the death of a leader who had an uncanny power to rally militants around him," Kabul-based military analyst Atiqullah Amarkhil told AFP. "His name was enough to prevent the Taliban's disintegration."
Back in July, Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security said Omar had died at a hospital in the Pakistani city of Karachi in April 2013 “under mysterious circumstances." Apparently coming under pressure afterwards, the group confirmed his death later in the month.
Mansour’s rise to power has, meanwhile, reportedly prompted a power struggle within the Taliban.
Some top leaders, including Omar's son Yaqub, and brother, Abdul Manan, have refused to pledge allegiance to the new leader, saying the process to select him was rushed and biased.
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