The Taliban have chosen the late Supreme Leader Mullah Omar’s longtime deputy to replace him as the ‘king’. The question is: “What lies behind his dark glasses?”
Chief Mulla Omar was officially announced dead on Thursday, July 30. Photo: IBT
Very little is known about the new Taliban king. As with all others before him, the Islamic fundamentalist political movement is shrouded in secrecy, and intelligence information obtained is always classified.
Naij.com has gathered five key details that tend to bring one up, close and ‘personal’ with the man who will now head the Afghan Taliban fighting the US-backed government in Kabul.
1. He is faceless
The new Supreme Leader Mullah Mansour is believed to be in his forties and from southern Afghanistan near Kandahar, the province where Mullah Omar first started the Taliban in the anarchic years that followed the pull-out of the Soviet Union after a grisly decade of fighting with the mujaheddin.
Like Omar, not a lot is known about Mansour and there are no confirmed pictures of him.
However, his presence is well-known in the Taliban hierarchy and in the Quetta Shura council based in the lawless border regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
2. The pragmatist
Mansour has been the author of a number of statements issued in the terrorist group’s name, including the recent message addressed to Islamic State (ISIS) leader and self-declared caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
He is believed to favour peace – hence his reputation as a pragmatist. But experts say he will now need to convince the sceptics.
According to IB Times, the last time Mansour was linked with peace talks, the affair ended in farce, when it emerged the man claiming to be the deputy Taliban leader was in fact an imposter.
Reports say that the imposter made away with a significant amount of money and was never seen again.
Meanwhile, since 2010, it has been Mullah Mansour and some other key figure, Abdul Qayum Zakir, who have personally supervised Taliban contacts with US and European officials, one of which led to the opening of a Taliban office in Doha, Qatar, in 2013.
The Daily Beast reports that in 2012, Abdul Qayum Zakir, challenged Mansour’s authority, but Mansour was able to have Zakir sidelined and silenced, ultimately firing him from the position of the head of the Taliban military council.
According to a research by the Washington Foundation, Mansour and Zakir were rivals, but their competition now seemed to be contained.
3. Natural devoted leader
Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour served as the minister of civil aviation under the Taliban when it ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until the US-led invasion in 2001, a rather underwhelming title for a man with his capabilities.
Sami Yousafza, The Daily Beast’s correspondent in Pakistan and Afghanistan, in an article titled “Up Close With the Taliban’s Next King” wroteMansour in his days as student at the madrasa in the camp, was poring over the holy texts during the day, and sleeping in a room in the mosque at night.
“Even then, he stood out among the other Taliban, which means “students” after all. He seemed a natural leader.”
It is impressive to note that Mansour became a leader in Harkat Islami, a jihadi students’ union, but when Mullah Omar started the Taliban movement in 1994, he was not one of the first to join.
He was picked by Mullah Omar as the Taliban minister of civil aviation and put in charge of the airports all over Afghanistan.
Mansour has been said to have the attribute of a tribal elder, neither conspicuously silent nor overly talkative, a man who weighs his words, reasonable and eloquent.
4. He is generous
A story is told of Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, when once in the stifling heat of July in Pakistan, Mansour carried dozens of Pepsi bottles to his class to kill the thirst of his fellow students.
According to journalist Sami Yousafza, the simple gesture showed him to be rich, by comparison with others, and generous.
5. He is sound and smart
Mullah Mansour was the same man who kept the death of the Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Omar a secret for more than a year.
A Taliban member explained that Mansour hid the death of Mullah Omar so he could handle the transition to his authority with no apparent vacuum in leadership.
“By keeping the death of Mullah Omar secret for a year he made a fool of the CIA and made everyone else look unintelligent.” Mansour’s friend told to the Daily Beast correspondent.
“That is a brilliant entry in his ledger. He got the responsibilities of the leadership while the Taliban were in crisis and there was in fact a void. He built up strong resistance (to government forces) and was in contact with commanders on the ground.”
On Wednesday, July 29, the Afghani government finally confirmed the rumors that Mullah Omar was dead.
The Afghani president’s spokesman stated: “The government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, based on credible information, confirms that Mullah Mohammad Omar, leader of the Taliban died in April 2013 in Pakistan. The government of Afghanistan believes that grounds for the Afghan peace talks are more paved now than before, and thus calls on all armed opposition groups to seize the opportunity and join the peace process.”
It was also noted that Omar had died more than two years before.
The question now becomes: “What will become of the Afghan Taliban now, under Mansour?”
Most members seem to believe Mansour has firm control over their movement, but it would be odd, many of them say, to call him the leader of the faithful.
That is a title, finally, that has to be earned, and whether he aims finally to achieve it through war or through peace is, at this point, impossible to tell.
Holding the Taliban together as it turns its back on two decades of violence and potentially strikes a deal with the Afghan government will be an enormous challenge, not least at a time when ISIS is taking violent insurgency and terrorism to whole new levels of brutality.
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