Afghan Taleban chief preached in Pakistan

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KUCHLAK, Pakistan, Oct 11, (Agencies): For 15 years until his sudden disappearance in May, the new leader of the Afghan Taleban insurgency openly taught and preached at the Al Haaj mosque in a dusty town in southwestern Pakistan, associates and students told Reuters. Details of Haibatullah Akhundzada’s life in Kuchlak, near the city of Quetta, have not previously been reported, and could put further pressure on Pakistan to do more to crack down on militants openly living there. The row over how far Islamabad will go to get rid of jihadi fighters and leaders has hurt relations between Pakistan and Washington, in part because nearly 10,000 American soldiers are in Afghanistan supporting the war against insurgents. A spokes- man for the US S t a t e Department’s South Asia bureau said it was not “not in a position to c o n f i r m Haibatul l a h Akhundzada’s whereabouts, past or present.” Akhundzada is now believed to be in hiding after crossing the long and porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, but not before going untouched in Kuchlak, located in Baluchistan province, as he rose up the ranks of the Afghan Taleban. He was promoted to “emir” in May after a US drone killed his predecessor, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, in another part of Pakistan, a strike that infuriated Islamabad but reflected growing impatience over what Washington sees as ambivalence towards its enemies.

Forces
Five years earlier, US forces stormed a compound near the Pakistani capital and killed al Qaeda’s leader Osama bin Laden. “Once he became Emir, he left with his whole family,” said Hafiz Abdul Majeed, who runs the Al Haaj mosque, adding that he himself studied for several years under Akhundzada. “You can’t teach religion and run (the Taleban’s) government at the same time. And it would of course have been dangerous for us and the students and the mosque if he remained here.” Pakistan says it does all it can to go after militants. The Interior Ministry did not reply to written questions about Akhundzada’s time in Kuchlak. A military spokesman said the army would not comment. Analysts say Pakistan has historically backed the Afghan Taleban as a hedge against the influence of arch-rival India, with whom Pakistan has fought three wars, in its backyard. Pakistan denies this. “I strongly reject any organised presence of Taleban in Baluchistan,” Sarfaraz Bugti, home minister for the province, told Reuters. At the Al Haaj mosque, scores of teenaged boys wearing turbans and traditional “shalwar kameez” robes attended classes at a religious school, typical of remote parts of Pakistan, where they provide education for millions of boys. On a recent visit, the metal door of the room where Akhundzada is said to have rested between lessons was padlocked and the curtains on the windows almost fully drawn. But Akhundzada’s name could be seen painted on a wall inside in large calligraphic text. Colleagues and students described Akhundzada, thought to be in his mid-50s and originally from Kandahar in Afghanistan, as a studious disciplinarian who slipped out of Kuchlak two days before being named Taleban chief. Majeed, the mosque administrator, said Akhundzada taught students from 8 a.m. to noon every morning at the mosque, and was paid a monthly salary of 10,000 Pakistani rupees ($100). “We are sad that he is gone because he was a great teacher and a great asset for this mosque,” he said.

Attacks
Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s Shiite population is preparing to mark the martyrdom of the Prophet Mohammad’s (PBUH) grandson with candlelight vigils and mass public flagellations, despite government warnings of possible attacks. The country’s religious authorities have declared Oct 12 Ashoura Day, the 10th day of the month of Muhharam on the Islamic calendar, to commemorate the death of Imam Hussein in Karbala, Iraq in 680 AD. The date, a national public holiday, is decided according to the new moon and is the climax of a month of mourning by devout Shiite Muslims. In Afghanistan, Shiites make up an estimated 15 percent of the population of around 30 million and most of them are ethnic Hazaras. Militant Sunni fundamentalists like the Taleban and the Islamic State group view Shiites as apostates and frequently attack Shiite mosques and public gatherings. In Kabul, the Afghan capital, Shiite neighborhoods have been decorated with banners and tents. Commemorations will conclude with mourning marches and often-bloody self-flagellations by men using chains and knives to empathize with Hussein’s suffering. Black tents erected by roadsides dispense free food and tea to pilgrims on foot. Homes and shops are decorated with black and green banners, and many Shiites fix black flags to their cars. Commemorations were largely banned during the five years when the Taleban controlled the country. But Afghanistan’s Shiites have taken their commemorations more public since the extremists were overthrown in the US invasion of 2001. In 2011, at least 54 people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated his device at a Kabul shrine where hundreds of people had gathered. A Shiite mosque in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif was hit at the same time, leaving four dead.

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