Taliban junks rumours about death of its supreme leader Akhundzada, dubs it 'propaganda'

Even as the whereabouts of Taliban's supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada remain unknown, the terrorist organisation dismissed rumours about his death. After he didn't appear in public even after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in mid-August, speculation was rife that he was either in Pakistan's custody or killed by that country's military establishment. Speaking to the media, Afghanistan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani's brother Anas Haqqani claimed that this was mere propaganda. Moreover, he claimed to have held two meetings with Akhundzada recently.

Besides being a member of the Taliban's political office, Haqqani is a member of the dreaded Haqqani network which is primarily based in Pakistan and was one of the most dangerous factions fighting the Afghan and NATO forces. Arrested in Bahrain in 2014, he was released on November 12, 2019, along with terrorists Hafiz Rashid Omari and Haji Milli Khan in exchange for university professors Kevin King and Timothy Weeks who were kidnapped by the Taliban in August 2016. It is pertinent to note that Akhundzada took over as the supreme leader of the Taliban after his predecessor Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US drone strike in 2016. 

Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan

After the Taliban stormed into Kabul on August 15, Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani resigned and fled the country with his associates. On August 31, the terror outfit gained control of the Kabul airport after the last batch of US troops left Afghanistan. Though the Taliban promised to form an "inclusive" government to run Afghanistan, it announced a caretaker Cabinet that neither has women nor mainstream politicians from previous regimes.

While Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the chief of the Taliban's Rehbari Shura, is the new Prime Minister, he has two deputies in Mullah Baradar and Mawlawi Hanafi. So far, the terror outfit's rule has been marked by repression of women's rights, restrictions on media, economic crisis and atrocities on Panjshir residents. In a key development on Thursday, 10 countries- India, Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan participated in the third Moscow Format meeting with a Taliban delegation led by Afghanistan Deputy PM Mawlawi Hanafi. 

They stressed that Afghanistan should be an economically developing state without the menace of terrorism and drug-related crime. The nations also called upon the Taliban regime to adopt moderate policies and a friendly approach towards its neighbours besides respecting the rights of ethnic groups, women and children. Most importantly, they urged the current Afghan leadership to take further steps to improve governance and to form a "truly inclusive government" that adequately reflects the interests of all major ethnopolitical forces in the country.