KABUL, Afghanistan: Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada has been appointed as the new Afghan Taliban Chief after the insurgent group on Wednesday confirmed the death of Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a recent US drone strike.
“Haibatullah Akhundzada has been appointed as the new leader of the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) after a unanimous agreement in the shura (supreme council), and all the members of shura pledged allegiance to him,” the Afghan Taliban said in a statement.
Moreover, Sirajuddin Haqqani and former leader Mullah Muhammad Omar’s son Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob have been appointed as Haibatullah Akhundzada’s deputies.
Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US drone strike carried out in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province on May 21; however, Pakistani government has not yet confirmed his killing.
On Tuesday addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan strongly condemned the US drone strike in Pakistani territory, calling it unacceptable, illegal, and in contrast to the United Nations Charter and the country’s sovereignty.
However, the minister declined to confirm Mansour’s death, saying that in the absence of any scientific or legal evidence, the Pakistani government was not in a position to confirm as yet whether the killed was Mullah Mansour.
The Afghan government and the US President Barack Obama have already confirmed the Taliban Chief’s death in a drone strike. Obama described Mansour’s death as an important milestone in efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan.
