Kabul, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban on Tuesday urged followers to disregard “enemy propaganda” about internal fractures in their movement following the death of longtime leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and to unite behind his chosen successor.
The statement, signed by spokesmen Zabihullah Mujahid and Qari Yusouf Ahmadi, called on supporters to “help write messages and letters on social media” to show a united front.
The Taliban confirmed the death of Mullah Omar, the reclusive leader who ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001 and sheltered Osama bin Laden, after Afghanistan’s security agency said last week that he had died in April 2013.
His deputy, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, was chosen to succeed him by the insurgent group’s seven-member supreme council, but Mullah Omar’s relatives — his son Yaqub and brother Manan — rejected the decision, calling for a wider election and revealing a rift within the movement.
Lately, Taliban fighters have been defecting to the Islamic State group in northern Kunduz province, and the two rival militant groups have increasingly fought it out there. The IS, which already controls about one-third of Syria and Iraq, is thought to have a small but growing presence in Afghanistan.
The Kunduz governor’s spokesman, Abdul Wadood Wahidi, said around 50 Taliban fighters in the province’s Archi district joined the IS three days ago after being offered money. This set off fierce fighting between the rivals and the Taliban arrested the defectors, he said.
The incident, Wahidi said, “shows there is a fracturing among the Taliban ranks.”
The Afghan government, meanwhile, banned any public mourning for Mullah Omar, saying late Monday that it would cause “anguish and humiliation” for those who have lost loved ones to the war with the Taliban.
A statement from the National Directorate of Security said public gatherings to commemorate Mullah Omar’s death would be a “legitimate military target.”
