Slain Taliban chief travelled on Pak passport: officials
Slain Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour used a Pakistani passport in a false name to make dozens of foreign trips over a ten-year period, mainly to the United Arab Emirates, officials told AFP yesterday.
The revelation casts further light on the degree of assistance likely given by Islamabad to him and other senior Taliban figures as they orchestrated a deadly insurgency against Afghan and US-led troops.
Mansour, who was killed in a US drone strike deep inside Pakistani territory on Saturday along with a driver, was travelling with a passport and ID card bearing the name "Muhammad Wali".
Three investigation officials said Mansour used the passport for extensive travel, mainly between the southern Pakistani city of Karachi and Dubai in the UAE but also to Iran.
He travelled 37 times, mostly to Dubai from Karachi, during the last 10 years, a senior investigating official told AFP. The official said he last left for Iran on April 25 and returned on the morning of May 21, the day he fell victim to the drone strike.
Iran has denied Mansour entered and left on those dates.
Mansour was appointed head of the Taliban in July 2015. His death has been confirmed by US President Barack Obama.
Meanwhile reports said the Afghan Taliban are struggling to find a successor to Mansour, with one saying the two main contenders have backed out of the leadership race.
That development will complicate the job of the Taliban's supreme council, which has been holding emergency meetings since Sunday at an undisclosed location in Pakistan to find a unifying figure for the leadership post.
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