was the likely successor along with Mulla Baradar Akhund of the deceased Taliban supreme leader. Earlier, it was speculated in the Taliban circles that Mansour’s position had been widely damaged for spreading news of Mulla Omar’s death. —Agencies
Mariana Baabar adds from Islamabad: The second round of the Afghan peace talks, which were scheduled to be held in Pakistan today (Friday) in Murree, ran into difficulties with dangers of collapsing as Pakistan announced that in view of reports regarding the death of Mulla Omar, and at the request of the Afghan Taliban leadership, the Murree talks were being postponed.
As reports came in about changes in Afghan Taliban leadership where Mulla Akhtar Mansour has been announced as the new supreme leader, Pakistan reached out to the new Taliban leadership. “Pakistan and other friendly countries of Afghanistan hope that the Taliban leadership will stay engaged in the process of peace talks in order to promote lasting peace in Afghanistan,” the spokesman at the Foreign Office announced.
Mansour has been supporting the Afghan peace talks in Murree but as yet there is expected confusion among the Taliban which today is a fragmented outfit where several field commanders are against the Murree talks.
Pakistan, the host of the Afghan peace talks which saw an earlier round being attended by representatives of President Ashraf Ghani and senior members of the Afghan Taliban, also warned those elements without naming them not to ‘undermine’ these peace efforts which would have an effect on the whole region.
The decision to postpone the Murree talks was taken suddenly because earlier in the afternoon the spokesman indicated that the peace talks were on schedule.
“Pakistan has been facilitating an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan. Efforts are being made for facilitating the second round of peace talks between the Afghan Taliban and the Afghan government. However, I do not have details in this regard as of now,” he had said before announcing the postponement of the talks.
Adding more confusion to the issue was the spokesman at the Foreign Office who when asked earlier at a media briefing about official reports from the Kabul government confirming Omer’s death said that Pakistan was still “verifying their veracity”.
“We have seen reports about Mulla Omar’s death. Rumours about his death have been circulating for some time now. Our authorities, therefore, are trying to check the veracity of the reports,” he responded.
Hours later, he appeared to be confirming the death of the Taliban leader when he pointed to reports about his death.“It is further hoped that those forces, which due to their malafide intent wanted to undermine the peace talks, will not succeed in their designs,” the spokesman added.Pakistan also informed China and the United States about the postponement at a time the US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Daniel F Feldman was in Islamabad.