The Taliban have confirmed the death of their former defence minister and close confidante of their spiritual mentor Mullah Omar in a Pakistani prison.
“We’ve been informed that the Taliban’s deputy leader, Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, passed away in a Pakistani jail,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a Pashto-language statement emailed to The Express Tribune on Monday.
Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, who was defence minister in the Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001, was captured in Balochistan in January 2007. He was subsequently released, only to be arrested again from Lahore in 2008 while raising funds for the ‘Taliban jihad’.
“There had been no word about his whereabouts since,” said Mujahid, adding that Akhund’s family was recently informed that he had died of cardiac arrest in a Karachi jail on March 5, 2010.
“It is still not clear whether the hero of the Afghan jihad and the Muslim nation died from some ailment or he had been tortured to death,” Mujahid said. “We strongly urge the Pakistani authorities to provide accurate information regarding his detention, sickness and his death,” he added.
Mujahid also criticised the Pakistan government, without naming it. “While the Afghan people have been suffering at the hands of infidel and non-Islamic nations, it’s sad that some Islamic countries are also subjecting them to such cruelty,” Mujahid said.
There was no immediate comment from Islamabad or Kabul on the development.
Sharing a pen-sketch of the man, Mujahid said Mullah Akhund, son of Mullah Yar Mohammad Akhund, was born in 1969 in the Zalgham area of Zherai district, Kandahar province. He joined the jihad against the Soviets under the command of Mullah Sadiq and later became the commander of Kandahar corps. He was captured by fighters of Afghan warlord Ismael Khan in Herat province along with other comrades. However, he was released as a result of a prisoner swap deal between the two sides. After the fall of Kabul to Taliban fighters in 1996, Mullah Akhund was appointed defence minister and later made Mullah Omar’s deputy.
Together with Mullah Agha Jan Mutasim and Mullah Baradar, Obaidullah was a key member of the Quetta Shura. Mutasim, the Taliban’s chief political strategist, was renamed chair of the Quetta Shura in place of Maulvi Abdul Kabir, who had been made chief military strategist following Baradar’s arrest.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 14th, 2012.
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I believe that such captives should be part of a rehabilitation program, so that they have to an option or choice to give up fighting and start a new life. As a matter of fact, the issue of IEDs is also surfacing these days, which is important to control.
We are ashamed, as Muslims we are ashamed of our coward role in the atrocities and untold suffering our Muslim brethren have to undergo in Afghanistan, and in the "Islamic" Republic of Pakistan. May Allah provide our oppressed Muslims justice everywhere. This was an absolute failure, first the Adiala case and now this, why are prisoners mysteriously dying? Why aren't authorities answerable? Why is there a dead-end to all these questions?