Mullah Omar’s brother and son pledge allegiance to Mullah Akhtar Mansoor

The Taliban group has claimed that the family members of Mullah Mohammad Omar – the group’s founder and former supreme leader, have pledged allegiance to the newly appointed Taliban group chief Mullah Akhtar Mansoor.

The group issued a statement this afternoon claiming that Mullah Omar’s brother Mullah Abdul Manan Akhunda and his son Maulavi Mohammad Yaqoob pledged allegiance during a meeting attended by the religious clerics and senior Taliban leaders.

The circumstances surrounding the decision by Mullah Omar’s family members to pledge allegiance to Mullah Mansoor is not clear so far.

Mullah Manan had earlier opposed with the election of Mullah Mansour as the replacement supreme leader of Taliban and had warned last month of internal fighting within the group should the differences among the Taliban leadership are not resolved.

He wanted Maulavi Yaqoob to succeed his father as the supreme leader of Taliban insisting that Mullah Mansoor was not elected by majority of Taliban’s central Shura ‘council’.

However, the Taliban group said the family members of Mullah Omar delayed the announcement of allegiance to Mullah Mansoor considering the interests of the group and rejected that the delay was caused due to rift among the Taliban leadership.

This comes as Maulavi Yaqoob issued an audio statement earlier this week warning that he is prepared to carry out a suicide attack amid rift among the Taliban leadership following the death of the group’s found and Supreme Leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

Without claiming the leadership, Maulavi Yaqoob said his father had not appointed a successor for the group. “If unity can return with my death, I am willing to carry out suicide,” he said.