Kabul wants Akhund’s body delivered to kin

KABUL defence minister, to his relatives, the Afghan embassy in Islamabad said on Wednesday.

Akhund had died of heart attack in a jail in Karachi, the port city of Pakistan, on March 5, 2010.

Afghan envoy Omar Daudzai, who met the newly appointed Pakistan’s deputy foreign minister, Jalil Abbas Jilani, on Tuesday called for Akhund’s body to be transferred to Afghanistan for burial by his relatives.

The embassy said in a statement the call was made through a memorandum of understanding to the Pakistani government.

Daudzai hailed contribution and efforts of former deputy Pakistani foreign minister Salman Bashir towards improving bilateral ties between the two neighbouring countries.

Obaidullah had been a senior lieutenant of Mullah Mohammed Omar, the movement’s supreme commander, and served as the Taliban defence minister during their reign over Afghanistan in the 1990s.

He was also one of Osama bin Laden’s main allies within the Taliban during the time when the two organizations were closely linked.

He was arrested in south-west Pakistan in 2007 and was reportedly freed later the same year in a prisoner swap, and then re-arrested under pressure from the US in 2008.

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