Taliban's ex-leader Mullah Omar died in Afghanistan: Son
The son of the deceased leader of Afghan Taliban militant group Mullah Omar says his father died of natural causes inside Afghanistan.
Mullah Mohammad Yakoub made the comments in an audio recording released on Sunday night after the militant group in July officially confirmed the death of its founder.
The recording comes as Afghan intelligence sources had previously said Mullah Omar passed away two years ago in a hospital in the Pakistani city of Karachi. There were also rumors of Mullah Omar’s murder by his enemies.
Taliban later said they hid his death for two years, as they did not want to make it public until foreign forces would have ended their fight against the militants.
"I assure you that when he died, he passed away from a natural death. He was not martyred either by elders inside the Emirate nor by enemies outside the Emirate," said Yakoub.
He further said that his father had been suffering from Hepatitis C which killed him quickly.
“According to the primary information we had from the doctors, he was diagnosed with Hepatitis C,” Mullah Omar’s son added in his first public statement.
Yakoub, who is thought to be in his late 20s, noted that his father did not choose a successor.
Taliban has appointed Mullah Akhtar Mansour as its new head.
As the founder of the Taliban, Mullah Omar brought the militant group to power following the withdrawal of the Soviet forces from Afghanistan in the 1990s. He was ousted in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror.
The Taliban has been operating in both Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan over the past years.
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