Taliban deny rumours about Omar’s death

KABUL Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban movement.

Earlier on Wednesday morning, some media outlets received messages from phone numbers and email addresses of Taliban spokesmen Zabihullah Mujahid and Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, saying that Mullah Omar died.

One of the messages says:” The leadership of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan hereby announces the death of their Amir. May Allah bless his soul.”

But an hour later, both of the Taliban spokesmen denied that those messages were authentic.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told Pajhwok Afghan News that Afghan and US spy rings had hacked their mobile phone accounts, email accounts and website to issue false messages to media about the death of their leader, Mullah Omar.

He added that US and Afghan intelligence agencies wanted to demoralize the Taliban while concealing and averting their own failures.

He also slammed the telecommunication networks, saying that they have supported the spy agencies.

Another Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, told Pajhwok that Mullah Omar is still alive and is continuing his struggle within Afghanistan.

Pajhwok received a statement containing detailed information about the death of Mullah Omar in three languages (Pashto, English, and Arabic) from the Taliban’s email address ([email protected]).

The statement says that Mullah Omar passed away on Friday, July 15, 2011 from heart disease.

According to that source, the Taliban leadership appointed Gul Agha, the former head of their financial affairs commission, as the new Taliban leader.

The statement also includes biographical information about Mullah Omar, starting chronologically from his birth through education against the Soviet Forces, establishment of the Taliban movement and finally, his death.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said that even though that statement was sent from the organization’s email address, the account had been hacked by spy agencies. 

In May, the death of Mullah Omar was reported by some media outlets, including a private Afghan TV channel, TOLO. Those reports said that Mullah Omar had been killed on the way from Quetta to Waziristan, but were later dismissed.

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