AFP |
The Afghan Taliban leader’s brother was among four people killed in a blast at a mosque in southwestern Pakistan Friday, a Pakistani official told AFP.
IED #blast inside Qasim masjid in kuchlak area near #Quetta. 4 dead more than dozen injured.#quettablast #Balochistan pic.twitter.com/RB5Qp2ogBM
— Asim Ahmed khan (@leokhanasim) August 16, 2019
The Taliban have not officially commented, but an unofficial statement circulating among Taliban fighters on WhatsApp and seen by AFP confirmed the claim. The blast comes at a delicate moment as a deal between the insurgents and Washington to end America’s war in Afghanistan is believed to be imminent.
The Afghan Taliban leader’s brother was among four people killed in a blast at a mosque in southwestern Pakistan Friday, a Pakistani official told AFP.
Provincial police chief Mohsin Hassan Butt said the explosion — the latest violence in a string of attacks in Balochistan — was caused by a remotely detonated bomb in the town of Kuchlak. “The death toll is four … and there are 23 others wounded,” senior police official Abdul Razzaq Cheema told AFP.
A senior official with the Balochistan provincial government confirmed that Ahmadullah Azkhundzada, brother of the Taliban chief Haibatullah Akhundzada, was among the dead. “This is confirmed that he is the brother of Haibatullah,” he told AFP on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to media.
Read more: Pakistan welcomes Gen. Nicholson’s offer to target Tehreek-e-Taliban
Two Taliban sources — one in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, and one in Chaman, on the border with Afghanistan — also said Ahmadullah had been killed. “The explosion took place while Hafiz Ahmadullah was reading sermon. Hafiz Ahmadullah was killed,” one said.
The list of dead and wounded issued by Sandeman Hospital also carries the name “Hamdullah son of Maulvi Mohammad Khan”. Taliban expert Rahimullah Yusufzai said the mosque was attached to a madrassa that had formerly been run by Haibatullah, the Taliban leader.
“After he became the emir he left this place,” Yusufzai told AFP.
“His younger brother … was running the madrassas. He has been killed as far as we know.” Local residents in Kuchlak also said on condition of anonymity that the mosque belonged to the family.
The blast comes at a delicate moment as a deal between the insurgents and Washington to end America’s war in Afghanistan is believed to be imminent.
They said that Ahamdullah was a respected Islamic scholar but had no links with the Taliban, taking over only after Haibatullah left to head up the Taliban in 2016. The police official Cheema denied the mosque was owned by the family, telling AFP that it instead belonged to a local Baloch man who was out of town at the time.
Deal imminent?
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which came as speculation has reached fever pitch in Kabul that an announcement about a deal between the US and the Taliban is imminent.
Read more: Pakistan urges US to resume aid, backs Taliban outreach
Potentially disruptive for Afghan peace.
Kuchlaq is near Quetta (& jokingly referred to as Mini-Kandahar because of heavy presence of Afghan & yes, Taliban diaspora).
Taliban leadership have residences & families based there for years now.
Hearing some of them were the target. https://t.co/IqEr7Gz4qS
— Wajahat S. Khan (@WajSKhan) August 16, 2019
The foes have been negotiating in Doha over the past year for a pact that would see the Pentagon begin to withdraw its 14,000 troops from Afghanistan.
Tweets from the Taliban and Zalmay Khalilzad — the US special envoy leading the talks — suggest work still remains to be done.
We've concluded this round of talks that started Aug 3 between the US and the Taliban. Over the last few days, the two sides focused on technical details. They were productive. I am on my way back to DC to consult on next steps.
— U.S. Special Representative Thomas West (@US4AfghanPeace) August 12, 2019
Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Friday that Prime Minister Imran Khan had spoken with President Donald Trump about the Taliban talks, adding that Pakistan remains committed to the process. Kabul and Washington have long accused neighboring Pakistan, which has helped facilitate the talks, of offering safe haven to the Taliban.
Read more: Can Pakistan bring back Afghan Taliban to the table?
Washington is keen to end its 18-year involvement in Afghanistan, where it has spent more than $1 trillion, and President Donald Trump has said he wants troops out. In return, the Taliban would commit to various security guarantees, including that the Islamist hardliners who long harbored Al-Qaeda would not allow Afghanistan to become a jihadist safe haven.
A US-Taliban agreement would not alone bring peace to Afghanistan, as the insurgents still need to reach an agreement with the government in Kabul, whom they dismiss as puppets.
AFP with additional input from GVS News Desk