“Only close family members were aware of the location,” a Taliban spokesman said.
Kabul:
The Taliban on Sunday revealed the final resting place of the movement’s founder, Mullah Omar, whose death and burial they kept secret for years.
Rumors about Omar’s health and whereabouts spread after the Taliban was ousted by a US-led invasion in 2001, and he only admitted in April 2015 that he had died two years earlier.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP on Sunday that senior leaders of the movement attended a ceremony at his graveyard near Omarjo in the Suri district of Zabul province.
The Taliban returned to power in August last year, as the US-led army ousted government forces that pushed the regime forward, ending a 20-year occupation.
“Since so many enemies were around and the country was occupied, it was kept secret to avoid damage to the tomb,” the Mujahid said.
“Only close family members were aware of the place,” he said.
Photos released by officials showed Taliban leaders gathered around a simple white brick mausoleum, covered with gravel and enclosed in a green metal cage.
“Now the decision has been taken… People have no problem in visiting the tomb,” the Mujahid said.
Omar, who was about 55 when he died, founded the Taliban in 1993 as an antidote to the internal civil war that erupted after a decade-long Soviet occupation.
Under her leadership, the Taliban introduced an extremely harsh version of the Islamic regime, banning women from public life and introducing harsh public punishments – including executions and whippings.
– Information of sabotage in Masood’s tomb –
Omar’s ceremony comes a day after provincial Taliban officials denied reports that the Panjshir Valley mausoleum of resistance hero Ahmed Shah Massoud was vandalized, with the Mujahid saying “punishment” would be given if this is true. .
Masood has a mixed heritage in the country, where he is hailed by ordinary Afghans for leading the resistance against the Soviet occupation, but he also fought until his 2001 assassination by al-Qaeda, hated by the Taliban.
His tomb is in a grand granite and marble mausoleum overlooking the picturesque Panjshir Valley, and has been guarded by Taliban fighters since the country’s takeover in August last year.
Local residents said a new group of fighters ransacked the mausoleum, and video of the unholy grave – which could not be verified – was published by local media and widely circulated on social channels.
“This happened when new forces entered Panjshir. New forces from Helmand and Kandahar destroyed the national hero’s mausoleum,” a resident told AFP.
Panjshir, the province’s head of information and culture, Nasrullah Malqzada, denied the tomb was damaged and released a video showing it intact.
However, the clip clearly didn’t show the entire structure—particularly the part seen damaged in the original video.
Malakzada declined a request by journalists to visit the mausoleum for himself or take a picture of it.
Mujahid told reporters that no one has the right to insult the dead.
“Earlier we had punished those committing such acts,” he said, adding that “this will also be probed and necessary action will be taken.”
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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