Dear All,
I have to say I’m not totally convinced by this story concerning the death of the former ruler of Afghanistan, Taliban leader Mulla Mohammad Omar. I mean: yes, he may well be dead -- but the way the news has been reported and then confirmed, and the way details of how, where and when he died have differed across reports, makes the whole matter rather murky.
The Afghan government/intelligence version is that based on ‘credible information’ they can confirm that Mulla Omar is dead. They also added that he died two years ago. And in a Karachi hospital. The Taliban confirmed this assertion.
However, almost a week before this news story hit global headlines, a report in Khaama Press quoted (July 2015) an Afghan splinter group’s claim that Mulla Omar was dead, had died two years ago but that he had been killed by rival Taliban leaders (not by a heart attack, TB, or poison). The news reports that appeared with a big splash a week later and were confirmed by Afghan sources had no mention of such internecine activity. Why did two such similar -- yet different -- reports appear within a week of one another and what are we to make of the discrepancies in them?
In 2001 when, following the 9/11 attacks the US invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban government, Mulla Omar went into ‘hiding’, the popular lore being that he escaped on a motorbike. The one-eyed ameer-ul-momineen rode off ‘into the sunset’ and disappeared.
For years, the rumour was that he was a ‘guest’ of the ISI in Quetta and where he presided over the so-called ‘Quetta Shoora’.
At various times over the years, his group angrily contradicted such reports insisting that their leader was not in Pakistan but actually fighting in Afghanistan.
In 2011, strong rumours of his death did the rounds. Again there were various versions of how he died, one allegation being that he had been killed by the ISI. But the Taliban insisted that he was alive.
Just two years later, the Karzai government began to open channels to the Taliban, the negotiations taking place outside Afghanistan, in Qatar. It seemed that the main players in the Afghan conflict, including the Americans, were in favour of these peace talks.
But Mulla Omar was nowhere to be seen, even though from time to time his deputies would claim to receive orders and notes from him.
So how does this death announcement affect the peace talks? And how far did these negotiations influence the timing of the announcement? Will peace talks be easier without the baggage of Mulla Omar? Or will the announcement of his death help to weaken the Taliban threat by ensuring that because of the ensuing power struggle they implode and collapse due to bloody in-fighting?
Did Mulla Omar die in April 2013 or in July 2013? Or indeed in 2011? Did he really end up in Karachi? Did he die of TB or was he poisoned or did he die violently? Where is he buried? And most of all: why is this news being released now?
There are so many questions… and so many agendas. The Taliban leader, not seen in public for the past 14 years, is now supposedly (conveniently?) dead, but Pakistan has added little to the chorus regarding his death.
As Ahmed Rashid rather nicely put it, "the truth is out there but when everyone lies it is difficult to see through the murk".
And murky it is.
Best wishes