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?"
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.
Five keys have been gathered, 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” wrote: “ Mansour 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.

www.naij.com/503585-things-know-new-taliban-king.html

2.

Esdb3:
2.

what's with 2??

The "all powerful" America didn't know for more than two years that the taliban leader. Same America hasn't been able to defeat Taliban after over a decade fight. Right now they are negotiating with the taliban. And some gullible Nigerians would be quoting " we don't negotiate with terrorist".