Rumours of the death of the Afghanistan Taliban’s one-eyed iconic leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, have swirled in the recent past, but nothing could be said one way or another considering that he has not been sighted since 2001 when the Taliban were ousted from power in Afghanistan. Mullah Omar and his senior colleagues were widely believed to be kept under tight control in Quetta. One thing was clear, however. The Pakistani military establishment has kept the top Taliban leaders under wraps, and have revealed one or another of them according to expediency at one time or another.
In the past week, the narrative of Mullah Omar’s demise has been more persistent. A breakaway Taliban outfit calling itself the Afghanistan Islamic Movement Fidai Mahaz claimed that Mullah Omar had been killed in April 2013 by Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, the head of the Taliban political wing under Mullah Omar, and someone called Gul Agha.
Before this report could be obscured, first the Afghan media and then the government of Afghanistan as well as the government of Pakistan have both come out indicating strongly that Mullah Omar had indeed died two to three years ago, and a purported Taliban spokesman has even told Pakistan’s Express Tribune newspaper that the Taliban chief had died of tuberculosis.
The position of the Pakistan government has indeed been curious. On July 15, it permitted a news report to circulate that Mullah Omar had endorsed the merits of the so-called peace process initiated by Pakistan with a meeting on July 7 at Murree, a well-known hill station not far from Islamabad, between the government of Afghanistan and representatives of the Taliban even as China and the US acted as observers. Even cynical observers might have been led to think that talks that would continue had begun in some format although it was understood by analysts that the Taliban camp may be riven in factions, with some possibly no longer being in the Pakistani ISI’s thrall.
Mullah Omar has largely been regarded as a symbolic figure who kept unity intact in the Afghanistan Taliban movement which can be said to be a kindred coalition of extremists of different generations, and possibly also different persuasions — some less pro-Pakistan than the others.
His removal from the scene means it is not clear whether Afghanistan under President Ashraf Ghani is actually conducting meaningful dialogue with people who have traditionally gone under the sobriquet of the Taliban, or is being taken for a ride by Islamabad whose principal purpose is to have a controlling influence over Kabul. In the present situation of considerable confusion, India, which has stakes in Afghanistan, may find its regional political options expanded.
