Mullah Omar died two years ago in a Karachi hospital: Afghan govt

KABUL/PESHAWAR: Taliban supremo Mullah Omar died two years ago in Pakistan, Afghanistan's intelligence agency and presidential spokesman said Wednesday, after unnamed government and militant sources reported the demise of the reclusive warrior-cleric.

"Mullah Omar is dead," Haseeb Sediqi, the spokesman for the National Directorate of Security, told AFP.

"He died in a Karachi hospital in April 2013... under mysterious circumstances."

Sediqi´s statement comes after unnamed government and militant sources told media, including AFP, that the one-eyed leader died two or three years ago, and after the Aghan government said it was investigating reports of the 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 told AFP earlier.

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

A statement from the Afghan Presidential Palace also added later: "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.”

However, denying today’s BBC report regarding Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s death, the Afghan Taliban released an official statement on Wednesday evening refuting Omar’s demise.

“The news about Mullah Omar’s death is a conspiracy against the Taliban,” said the official statement by the Afghan Taliban in Pashto.

Earlier today, the BBC quoting Afghan government and intelligence sources claimed Taliban leader Mullah Omar had died two to three years ago.

Wednesday´s reports came just two days before a second round of peace talks between the insurgents and Afghan government representatives which are expected to take place in Pakistan.

On July 7, The Afghan government conducted its first face-to-face talks with Taliban cadres supervised by American and Chinese representatives in the Pakistani hill station of Murree.

The reclusive leader of the Afghan Taliban movement, Mullah Omar led the militant group to victory over competing Afghan militias in the 1990's after the withdrawal of Soviet troops.

The Taliban leader has been in hiding since the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001.

The US-led invasion was prompted by the Taliban's alliance with Al-Qaeda in following the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center buildings in New York.

The Taliban have released several messages over the years said to be from the Taliban supremo.

The US State Department had placed a 10 million-dollar bounty on Omar's head.