[Tolo News] The Taliban's newly appointed leader, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, has denied that any peace talks have taken place between his group and the Afghan government, despite reports last month that he was involved in the widely covered negotiations outside Islamabad.The denial of peace talks comes after reports circulated last week that the new Taliban leader, who was promoted after news of the death of the group's former leader Mullah Omar
... a minor Pashtun commander in the war against the Soviets who made good as leader of the Taliban. As ruler of Afghanistan, he took the title
Leader of the Faithful. The imposition of Pashtunkhwa on the nation institutionalized ignorance and brutality in a country already notable for its own fair share of ignorance and brutality...
broke, is unpopular among many of the insurgency's leaders. As a whole, the grinding of the peace processor launched with the help of Pakistain and China last month, as well as the death of Mullah Omar, have exposed immense division within the Taliban's ranks.
"The movement will continue until the Islamic system rules," Mansour said at an allegiance ceremony this week. "This rumor among the enemies that a grinding of the peace processor is going on, it is the enemies' propaganda."
Mansour's move to deny the peace talks, which were in fact well-documented by Afghan and Pak officials, could potentially be an attempt to shore up his support among members of the group who have been reticent about the negotiations.
Recently, Syed Tayyab Agha, the head of the Taliban's political office in Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates...
, resigned from his post. Although it is unclear exactly why he resigned, it is rumored that it was because of his opposition to Mansour's leadership.
"The division that is taking place among the Taliban and its aftermath will be clarified later," political analyst Nazar Mohammad Mutmain told TOLOnews on Tuesday.
Some former Taliban leaders say that a number of key commanders have refused to pledge allegiance to Mansour, who was Mullah Omar's deputy for the past decade.
"Akhtar Mansour does not have the dignity [that Omar had] and he does have his popularity," said Mawlawi Qalamuddin, the former Taliban minister of vice and virtue.
Qalamuddin says the infighting and mysterious deaths of Taliban leaders suggest the movement is losing steam and sight of its objectives. "The mysterious killings of Mullah Mohammad Omar and Mullah Obaidullah and other Taliban high ranking members show that the war has no more justification," he said.
News of Omar's was confirmed last Wednesday. Although the Taliban has maintained he passed recently, the Afghan government and other independent sources have maintained he died in 2013 at a hospital in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
.
Insider sources have said that most Taliban capos were unaware of Omar's death, and that it was kept from them in an attempt to avoid deflating morale.