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Afghanistan

Senior Taliban leader Mullah Hassan Rahmani dies

2016-02-10

[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A senior member of the Taliban leadership council Mullah Mohammad Hassan Rahmani has passed away, Taliban announced in a statement on Tuesday morning. According to the statement, Rahmani died of cancer last night. Images published on social media show an elderly aged man, identified as Rahmani, lying on a bed in a hospital. However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... the location of the hospital is not mentioned. Mullah Mohammad Hassan Rahmani was a close aide Mullah Mohammad Omar who served as the governor of southern Kandahar province and head of the southern zone during Taliban regime. Rahmani was among the Taliban leaders who had been involved in meetings for reaching to a peace deal with government including one that was arranged in Urumqi city of China. He was one of the few Taliban capos who initially opposed the selection of Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour as the leader of Taliban after the death of Mullah Omar ... a minor Pashtun commander in the war against the Soviets who made good as leader of the Taliban. As ruler of Afghanistan, he took the title Leader of the Faithful. The imposition of Pashtunkhwa on the nation institutionalized ignorance and brutality in a country already notable for its own fair share of ignorance and brutality... But sources later said that a compromise had been reached and Rahmani too pledged allegiance to Mansour. An Nahar adds: Mullah Muhammad Hassan Rahmani died of cancer on Monday night in a hospital in the southwestern Pak city of Quetta, two senior Taliban sources told AFP Tuesday, potentially embarrassing Islamabad which denies harboring the bad boy group's leadership on its soil. Rahmani rose to prominence as a jihadist during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and lost a leg during the conflict, according to a statement on the Taliban's website which confirmed his death but did not say where it happened. Quetta, the capital of Pakistain's restive Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... province, has long been rumored to host the "Quetta Shura ...Mullah Omar's command center, located in Quetta, that the Pak govt hasn't been able to find since its establishment in November, 2001. Honest... " or Quetta Leadership Council of the Taliban -- big shots who fled across the border to Pakistain after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Pakistain, which was one of just three countries to recognize the Taliban during their period in power, denies the council's existence. A senior Taliban leader told AFP: "He died in Quetta late Monday night and today his body was moved to Afghanistan. The burial will probably take place in Kandahar." The source added: "He was a prominent figure in the Taliban leadership and there were some rumors he might soon announce his own splinter group."

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India-Pakistan

Taliban Hold Open Meetings in Pakistan to Discuss Leadership

2015-08-07

[Tolo News] Senior members of the Taliban are reportedly holding open meetings in Pakistan to discuss the disputed appointment of Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour as the group's new chief in the wake Mullah Omar's death. What fun! Can we send a delegate, too? I'm certain that a few of us have opinions... Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, while confirming Mullah Omar's death, in a statement earlier this month announced that Mullah Mansour would be the successor to the late supreme leader and original founder of the group. The Afghan government has maintained Omar died two years ago at a hospital in Pakistan's port city of Karachi. Several top Taliban leaders have expressed strong opposition to Mansour's leadership, calling him a puppet of Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI). Sources within the Afghan government told TOLOnews on condition of anonymity on Thursday that scores of Taliban members - including both those who agree and disagree with Mansour's appointment - met with clerics in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan on Wednesday to resolve the dispute over Omar's successor. The names of those within the Taliban who are said to endorse Mansour's leadership are as follows: Mawlavi Abdul Kabir, Abdul Hassan Akhund, Mohammad Rassoul Akhund, Abdul Latif, Mansour Ibrahim Sadar, Abdul Rashid Shinwari, Abbas Akhund, Mohammad Essa Akhund, Mawlavi Abdul Rahim, Mawlavi Abdul Nabi, Mawlavi Mohammad Reza, Mawlavi Mohammad Nadim, Shahabuddin Dilawar, Mawlavi Jan Mohammad, Qazi Din Mohammad, Mawlavi Nek Mohammad and Mohammad Zahir Ahmadzai. Meanwhile, the list of those thought to disagree with Mansour's appointment is also extensive: Mohammad Yaqoub (Mullah Omar's eldest son), Abdul Manan (Mullah Omar's brother), Abdul Raziq Akhund, Abdul Mobin Akhund, Mohammad Hassan Rahmani, Abdul Raouf Akhund, Abdul Bari Akhund, Abdul Rahman Zahid, Anwar-ul-Haq Mujahid, Mansour Dadullah, Mawlavi Hamza, Abdul Manan Niazi, Abdul Qayoum Zakir, Zabihullah, Mawlavi Shireen, Mohammad Akhtar Mohammadzai, Gull Pacha Amiri and Janan Haq Parast. Some political analysts, meanwhile, have said the Pakistani government is seeking to exploit divisions within the Taliban's ranks. "It has always been said that Pakistan is using the Taliban leaders as a tool, and now this issue, once again, has been raised after the Taliban overtly began their activities and movement in Pakistan," political commentator Javed Kohistani said. Other commentators believe the recent Taliban gathering in Pakistan is evidence of Pakistani clerics' attempt to stop the group from splintering. "There were the same issues during Jihad; when the Mujahideen divided into many groups, Pakistan brought all of them to one table," National Solidarity Movement leader Sayed Ishaq Gilani told TOLOnews. "Now the same thing is happening to the Taliban; Pakistani clerics are trying to use the group as a tool."

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Afghanistan

Taleban say attacks will increase, US “helpless”

2006-02-15

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan - Afghanistan’s Taleban guerrillas are gaining strength and will step up attacks against government and foreign troops when spring comes next month, a Taleban commander said on Tuesday. “Taleban attacks will further increase with a decrease in the winter cold,” a former Taleban governor of Kandahar province, Mullah Mohammad Hassan Rahmani, told Reuters by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location. "We'll moidalize 'em!" Fighting in Afghanistan traditionally eases off during the winter months when mountain passes get snowed under in the brutal Afghan winter. But violence has surged in recent months, including 15 suicide blasts since November. US military officials say the Taleban have changed tactics since suffering heavy losses in clashes last summer and are now increasingly using roadside blasts and suicide bombers against soft targets. “American forces have become helpless before the Taleban’s suicide and other attacks,” Rahmani said. “The Taleban are inflicting heavy losses on American forces in men and material and it is to hide the cowardice and failure of their troops that America is reducing its forces.” Yeah, yeah, you'll slaughter us, we'll all commit suicide in front of the gates of Kabul ... They say the same thing every year, though I'll admit that this year will probably be different. Now that they've taken over Waziristan they've got an operating base, which they didn't have before. The only way to handle it will be to go into Waziristan (both of them) after them, which'll make the Paks bitch and moan. Not that the Paks have any intention of going into Waziristan themselves, mind you...

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