It has been more than five years since the Taliban’s supreme leader, Mulla Omar, vanished into the trackless terrain outside Kandahar, and his likeliest source of sanctuary is thought to be the belt of rugged tribal territory straddling the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, in Kuchlak – a dusty desert crossroads in Balochistan – Mullah Omar is still referred to by the title of amir al-mominin, or commander of the faithful. The report said that Omar’s feat of eluding a long manhunt by the Americans and their allies was celebrated in Kuchlak as proof of his “mystical powers”. “With all their sophisticated satellites, they cannot find him,” said Fazil Mohammad Baraich, a district chieftain. “It is no surprise that God protects him … this increases our faith.” To admirers, the near-completeness of Omar’s vanishing act after fleeing his compound outside Kandahar in 2001 is a triumphant rebuttal of the allies’ characterisations of him as a simpleton. “If that is the case, why has he been able to hide so well and for so long?” said Baraich.
Rumours of Omar sightings abound, and are repeated by locals with an air of satisfied certainty. “I have heard on good authority that he is living in a camp in the military enclave outside Quetta,” the report quoted Muhammed Ashiq, head of a merchants’ association in that provincial capital, as saying.
The report said that in tribal communities such as Kuchlak, sympathy for the Taliban was “undiminished”. It said that the cult-like devotion to Omar in mosques and makeshift classrooms of tribal territories helped ensure a “steady supply of Taliban fighters”.
Kuchlak, 10 miles north of Quetta, is a convenient way station for anybody looking to move surreptitiously in and out of the tribal belt. One road out of town leads north to the Afghan border and continues to Kandahar, while another, with only a single police checkpoint in more than 100 miles, leads to Waziristan. Because of OmarÂ’s longtime aversion to being photographed, few in the border hinterlands would be in a position to positively identify him. The report said that in any event, many observers believed that betrayal from within OmarÂ’s tribal milieu would be unthinkable.