News of Taliban leader, one-eyed Mullah Omar, being killed in Pakistan has been doing the rounds. But the Taliban in Afghanistan have rejected the report.
KABUL/ISLAMABAD: An Afghan television channel on Monday said Taliban leader Mullah Omar was killed in Pakistan, a claim promptly denied by the Taliban. "Mullah Omar was killed on way from Quetta to North Waziristan," said Xinhua citing Afghanistan's TOLO television news. There were no details on how the one-eyed Taliban chieftain was killed and by whom. A Pakistani security official confirmed the alleged killing, saying: "It's correct that Mullah Omar has been killed." The Mullah was Afghanistan's de facto head of state from 1996 to late 2001. Soon after the news broke, the Pakistani Taliban said, "Tehreek-e-Taliban strongly denies that Mullah Omar was killed as claimed by the Afghan intelligence agency and as a section of the media has reported." "We can confirm that he has disappeared from his hideout in Quetta, (the capital of the southwestern Pakistani province) Baluchistan," said Lutfullah Mashal, spokesman for Afghanistan's intelligence service, National Directorate of Security ( NDS). Reports of Mullah Omar's death spread quickly in Kabul after Tolo television, a major news channel here, citing an unnamed source inside the security directorate, reported on Monday that he had been shot dead two days ago as he was being moved from Quetta in southern Pakistan to North Waziristan by the former Pakistani intelligence chief, Lt Gen Hamid Gul. When contacted by the New York Times over telephone in Pakistan, Gul laughed at the reports and called them completely baseless. "Was I killed, too?" he said. "Am I speaking to you from heaven?" Gul said he was in Rawalpindi two days ago, though it was not clear whether the Afghan security directorate believed he was physically with Omar or was orchestrating the move from elsewhere. According to US National Terrorism Centre, Mullah Omar's Taliban regime in Afghanistan sheltered Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network in the years before the September 11, 2001, attacks. Osama was gunned down on May 2 by US commandos in Pakistan's Abbottabad hill station. Although Operation Enduring Freedom launched post-9/11 removed the Taliban regime from power in Afghanistan, Mullah Omar was at large. The US has declared a $10 million reward on information leading to his capture or death. "These reports were spread by Afghan intelligence. I don't know whether Mullah Omar is dead or alive. If Afghan or Nato troops have killed him, they should come up with credible evidence," said Pakistan's interior minister Rehman Malik in Karachi. "It's propaganda of US and its puppet government in Afghanistan. Mullah Omar is alive and leading a campaign against the evil forces in Afghanistan," said Shakirullah Jan, TTP spokesman in Mohmand Agency. Five days ago, the TTP deputy chief Waliur Reham Mehsud released an audio tape in which he endorsed Mullah Omar as the supreme commander of TTP as well. Afghan intelligence has reported the killing Mullah Omar earlier as well, which have proved to be untrue.
KABUL/ISLAMABAD: An Afghan television channel on Monday said Taliban leader Mullah Omar was killed in Pakistan, a claim promptly denied by the Taliban. "Mullah Omar was killed on way from Quetta to North Waziristan," said Xinhua citing Afghanistan's TOLO television news. There were no details on how the one-eyed Taliban chieftain was killed and by whom. A Pakistani security official confirmed the alleged killing, saying: "It's correct that Mullah Omar has been killed." The Mullah was Afghanistan's de facto head of state from 1996 to late 2001. Soon after the news broke, the Pakistani Taliban said, "Tehreek-e-Taliban strongly denies that Mullah Omar was killed as claimed by the Afghan intelligence agency and as a section of the media has reported." "We can confirm that he has disappeared from his hideout in Quetta, (the capital of the southwestern Pakistani province) Baluchistan," said Lutfullah Mashal, spokesman for Afghanistan's intelligence service, National Directorate of Security ( NDS). Reports of Mullah Omar's death spread quickly in Kabul after Tolo television, a major news channel here, citing an unnamed source inside the security directorate, reported on Monday that he had been shot dead two days ago as he was being moved from Quetta in southern Pakistan to North Waziristan by the former Pakistani intelligence chief, Lt Gen Hamid Gul. When contacted by the New York Times over telephone in Pakistan, Gul laughed at the reports and called them completely baseless. "Was I killed, too?" he said. "Am I speaking to you from heaven?" Gul said he was in Rawalpindi two days ago, though it was not clear whether the Afghan security directorate believed he was physically with Omar or was orchestrating the move from elsewhere. According to US National Terrorism Centre, Mullah Omar's Taliban regime in Afghanistan sheltered Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network in the years before the September 11, 2001, attacks. Osama was gunned down on May 2 by US commandos in Pakistan's Abbottabad hill station. Although Operation Enduring Freedom launched post-9/11 removed the Taliban regime from power in Afghanistan, Mullah Omar was at large. The US has declared a $10 million reward on information leading to his capture or death. "These reports were spread by Afghan intelligence. I don't know whether Mullah Omar is dead or alive. If Afghan or Nato troops have killed him, they should come up with credible evidence," said Pakistan's interior minister Rehman Malik in Karachi. "It's propaganda of US and its puppet government in Afghanistan. Mullah Omar is alive and leading a campaign against the evil forces in Afghanistan," said Shakirullah Jan, TTP spokesman in Mohmand Agency. Five days ago, the TTP deputy chief Waliur Reham Mehsud released an audio tape in which he endorsed Mullah Omar as the supreme commander of TTP as well. Afghan intelligence has reported the killing Mullah Omar earlier as well, which have proved to be untrue.
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