Top Taliban leader dies in Quetta

The death was potentially embarassing for Islamabad which denies harbouring Taliban leadership

Islamabad, Feb. 9: A senior Afghan Taliban member has died in Pakistan after an illness, militant sources said Tuesday. The death was potentially embarassing for Islamabad which denies harbouring the insurgent group’s leadership on its soil.

Mullah Muhammad Hassan Rahmani, who was in his mid- fifities and a member of the group’s leadership council, died of cancer on Monday night in a hospital in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, two senior Taliban sources said.

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.

He was later appointed governor of Kandahar province, the Taliban’s heartland, when the militants ruled the country from 1996 to 2001.

Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, has long been rumoured to host the “Quetta Shura” or Quetta Leadership Council of the Taliban — senior leaders who fled across the border to Pakistan after the US- led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Pakistan, which was one of just three countries to recognise the Taliban during their period in power, denies the council’s existence.

A senior Taliban leader said: “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 rumours he might soon announce his own splinter group.”

The dominant faction of the Taliban is led by Mullah Akhtar Mansour, who officially succeeded founder Mullah Omar.

A major breakaway faction, meanwhile, is led by Muhammad Rasul, whose faction is seen by some analysts as closer to Iran.

Rahmani’s death in Pakistan, which was confirmed by another senior militant source, comes as the Taliban step up their attacks in an unprecedented winter surge a year after the withdrawal of Nato combat troops.