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Journalism of Courage
The Afghan intelligence agency said Monday that the reclusive leader of the Taliban has disappeared from a suspected hideout in Pakistan and has been out of contact with his commanders for days,adding further questions about Mullah Mohammad Omar after a media report said he was killed.
The Taliban denied the claim aired on the Afghan news channel Tolo,which quoted an anonymous Afghan intelligence official as saying Omar had been shot dead in Pakistan en route to North Waziristan with the help of Gen Hamid Gul,the former chief of Pakistani intelligence. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said Omar was alive and was in Afghanistan.
Gul,for his part,said the story was false. This is propaganda,sheer deception,disinformation, Gul said.
Afghan officials claim Omar has been sheltered in Quetta or Karachi,in Pakistan. Pakistan says it has no credible evidence Omar is in the country.
The spokesman for the Afghan National Directorate for Security,or NDS,said Omar and some Taliban commanders had not been spotted since late last week while moving from Quetta to North Waziristan. The spokesman,Latifullah Mashal,suggested that maybe an incident has happened along the way, but emphasised there was no new information. We can confirm hes been disappeared from his hideout, Mashal said. Mashal said that the NDS had shared information about Omars whereabouts more than 30 times with neighbouring countries,especially Pakistan. Most of the allies are honest,some are not, the spokesman said in an apparent reference to Pakistan.
Pakistans foreign minister,meanwhile,was in Kabul for talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai,who has been increasingly outspoken in the need for Pakistan to take a stronger role in the fight against militant groups.
