KABUL: Taliban supremo Mullah Omar died in Pakistan two years ago, the Afghan government said on Wednesday, after unnamed official and militant sources reported the death of the reclusive leader.

The militants have not officially confirmed the death of their spiritual leader, who has not been seen publicly since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan that toppled the Taliban government in Kabul.

Rumours of Omar’s ill-health and even death have regularly surfaced in the past, but the latest claims — just two days before fresh peace talks with the militants — mark the first such confirmation from Afghanistan.

White House terms reports credible

“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,” a statement from the presidential palace said.

The White House added weight to the assertion, calling reports of his demise “credible”, though it refused to be drawn on the timing and location of his death.

Haseeb Sediqi, the spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Dire­c­torate of Security, said that Omar died in a Karachi hospital “under mysterious circumstances”.

Omar’s death would mark a significant blow to an almost 14-year Taliban insurgency, which is riven by internal divisions and threatened by the rise of the self-styled Islamic State (IS) group in South Asia.

The announcement also cast doubts over the second round of negotiations between the militants and the Afghan government, which are expected to take place in Pakistan on Friday.

Confirmation of Omar’s death could trigger a power struggle within the Taliban, observers say, with insurgent sources claiming his son Mohammad Yakoub and current deputy Mullah Mansour are both top contenders to replace him.

Wednesday’s official announ­cement came after unnamed government and militant sources told media that the one-eyed leader died two or three years ago — and after the Afghan government said it was investigating reports of his death.

“We can confirm that Mullah Omar died two years ago... in Pakistan due to an illness,” a senior official in Afghanistan’s national unity government said earlier.

“He was buried in Zabul province (in southern Afghanistan),” said the official, citing Afghan intelligence sources.

The Taliban militants in April published a descriptive biography of the “charismatic” supreme leader in a surprise move apparently aimed at countering the creeping influence of IS within their ranks.

The Taliban have reportedly seen defections to IS in recent months, with some members expressing disaffection with their low-profile chief.

The biography, posted on the Taliban’s official website to commemorate Omar’s apparent 19th year as supreme leader, tried to dispel speculation he had died by describing him as actively involved in jihadi activities.

And earlier this month in a message released in his name, the leader was quoted as hailing the peace process as “legitimate”.

The comments, the first reputedly made by Omar on the nascent dialogue, eased concerns at the time that the process lacked the leadership’s backing.

But a member of the Taliban’s governing council, voiced doubt over whether that message — released just before Eidul Fitr — was from Mullah Omar himself.

“For the last few years he has not attended any big gathering, neither has he sent any audio message to his followers,” the member, who requested anonymity, said on Wednesday.

Waheed Muzhda, a Kabul-based analyst who served in the 1996-2001 Taliban regime’s foreign ministry, said any confirmation of his death from the militants would bode ill for the unity of their movement.

“It would mean that messages sent out in the name of Mullah Omar in the last two years were all lies and deception,” Muzhda said.

The Taliban’s regular spokesman could not be reached for comments through normal channels.

Omar was born in 1959 or 1960 in a small village near the city of Kandahar, and had to fend for his family from an early age after his father died. He became a cleric before joining the resistance against the Soviet-backed government between 1989 and 1992, and he lost his right eye when hit by shrapnel. Omar’s rise was a result of frustration at abuses perpetrated by armed factions in the chaotic early 1990s, and he and his Islamist Taliban movement seized power in 1996.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2015

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