Senior Afghan Taleban member dies in Pakistan

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 10, (AFP): A senior Afghan Taleban member has died in Pakistan after an illness, militant sources said Tuesday, potentially embarassing Islamabad which denies harbouring the insurgent group’s leadership on its soil. Mullah Muhammad Hassan Rahmani, who was in his mid-fifties and a member of the group’s Leadership Council, died of cancer on Monday night in a hospital in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, two senior Taleban sources told AFP.

Rahmani rose to prominence as a jihadist during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and lost a leg during the conflict, according to a statement on the Taleban’s website which confirmed his death but did not say where it happened. He was later appointed governor of Kandahar province, the Taleban’s heartland, when the militants ruled the country from 1996 to 2001.

Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, has long been rumoured to host the “Quetta Shura” or Quetta Leadership Council of the Taleban — senior leaders who fled across the border to Pakistan after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Pakistan, which was one of just three countries to recognise the Taleban during their period in power, denies the council’s existence. A senior Taleban leader told AFP: “He died in Quetta late Monday night and today his body was moved to Afghanistan. The burial will probably take place in Kandahar.” The source added: “He was a prominent figure in the Taleban leadership and there were some rumours he might soon announce his own splinter group.”

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