By The Daily Journalist.
The Taliban have elected their new leader: Akhtar Mohamed Mansur, former ‘number two’ of the late Mullah Omar. The news was announced by Afghan commanders one day after Kabul announced the death of the emir, held in 2013.
“The Shura gathered on the outskirts of Quetta has unanimously elected Mullah Mansur as the new emir of the Taliban,” announced one of the commanders.
Coinciding with this announcement, the second round of peace talks between the Afghan Government and scheduled for Friday Taliban has been “postponed” at the request of the insurgent group after yesterday the Afghan government announced the death of Mullah Omar, as informed the Government of Pakistan.
“In view of the information of the death of Mullah Omar and the resulting uncertainty, and at the request of the Taliban leaders, the second round of Afghan peace talks that were scheduled for July 31 has been postponed,” said a Foreign Ministry statement of Pakistan, which hosts the meetings.
The government and Taliban representatives held on July 7 in Pakistan its first official meeting, after informal meetings in Qatar and Norway in previous months, and this week was due to be held its second meeting.
The president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Gani, announced yesterday the death of Mullah Omar, in April 2013 in Pakistan, a death which according to Afghan intelligence agency was in a hospital in Karachi.
“Pakistan and other friendly countries of Afghanistan hope that the Taliban leaders remain committed to the peace process to promote lasting peace in Afghanistan,” he said in his statement the Pakistani government.
He also expressed his hope that “these forces” which identified no bad faith attempt to undermine the talks to not succeed in their attempts.
The Afghan government said yesterday in a statement about the death that “the way for peace talks is more flattened than before” and therefore called for “all armed opposition groups to take the opportunity to join the process peace. ”
Following the president’s announcement, the Taliban had kept silent about the alleged death of their leader. This afternoon, following the announcement of its new leader, officially acknowledged the death of Mullah Omar.
