Haqqani Network leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, also the Taliban Acting Minister of Interior Affairs has stated that Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban group’s founder, was chosen to protect the religion of Islam.
During a ceremony in Zabul province to mark the revealing of Mullah Omar’s burial on Monday, November 7, Haqqani stated that he was chosen to defend the Islamic way of life and system.
“Amir al-Mu’minin Mullah Mohammad Omar Mujahid was chosen to protect the religion and the system,” he said. The title Mullah Omar was given is an Arabic designation for the supreme leader of the Islamic community. Typically, it is interpreted as “Commander of the Faithful.”
Mullah Omar was born in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan, he founded the Taliban movement in 1996 after which he was given the title of Amir al-Mu’minin.
Mullah Omar died in Pakistan in 2013, and Mullah Akhtar Mansour succeeded him as commander of this group, according to information from the National Directorate of Security of Afghanistan’s former government.
From 1996 until 2001, Mullah Omar presided as the Taliban’s supremo. However, after the September 11 terrorist attacks and the US invasion of Afghanistan to defeat Al-Qaeda, the Taliban was overthrown.
Mullah Omar stopped appearing in public after that, and the US government offered a $10 million bounty for his arrest. He was also labeled on the list of the top 10 most dangerous terrorist groups.
The whereabouts of Mullah Omar, the founder of the movement, who was killed and buried in secret for many years, was made public by the Taliban on Sunday.
Taliban leaders could be seen gathered around a plain white brick tomb that was encircled by a green metal fence and covered with what seemed to be gravel in photographs released by the government.
Omar’s event came a day after local Taliban leaders refuted allegations that resistance commander Ahmad Shah Massoud’s burial in the Panjshir Valley had been vandalized.
The Taliban’s Zabihullah Mujahid warned that if the accusations were accurate, the act would be “punished.”
