Daily Times

PESHAWAR: Afghan Taliban on Wednesday formally announced the appointment of Maulvi Haibatullah as their new leader after the death of Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a US drone strike in Balochistan province a couple of days back.

Sirajuddin Haqqani and Mullah Yaqoob were appointed deputy leaders of the movement.

In a press release issued to the media, the Taliban also formally confirmed the death of former chief Mullah Mansour in the US drone attack.

A day earlier, the Taliban shura discussed six names including Maulvi Haibatullah, Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir, Mullah Ahmed Rabbani, Mullah Hasan Akhund (former foreign minister and governor of Qandahar during the Taliban rule), Sirajuddin Haqqani, son of Jalaluddin Haqqani and head of the Haqqani network, and Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob, son of former Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar, to head the movement.

Mullah Akhtar Mansour had himself nominated Maulvi Haibatullah and Sirajuddin Haqqani as successors after his death.

Senior journalist and expert on Pak-Afghan affairs Rahimullah Yusufzai said by elevating Mullah Yaqoob to the position of deputy to the new chief, it seemed Taliban wanted to groom him to lead the movement in future.

According to Yusufzai, Mullah Yaqoob is the most non-controversial as well as acceptable figure among the current emerging leaders to all the factions of the Taliban.

Experts believe the succession of Maulvi Haibatullah as leader of the Taliban would bring all the breakaway factions together under one command.

According to expert on Afghan affairs Tahir Khan, Haibatullah used to run seminaries in both Afghanistan’s Qandahar province and Pakistan’s Balochistan and has taught many militants. He maintained that the new Taliban leader has very little combat experience but his command on matters related to religion is beyond doubt.

Prior to 2001, Maulvi Haibatullah was heading the military courts system of the Taliban. He was the overall in-change of Taliban’s military courts and used to oversee and address the complaints against the military courts.

According to Tahir Khan, Haibatullah is likely to be a symbolic head of the Taliban movement while the real powers will reside with Haqqani and Mullah Yaqoob.

Despite his young age, Yaqoob has headed the military command of 14 districts of Afghanistan, he maintained. “Haqqani has been enjoying the real powers even when Mansour was alive,” Tahir said, and added in April this year, Haqqani headed a shura meeting and approved the inclusion of Yaqoob as a member of the council.

In contrast to Haqqani, he said, Haibatullah is a shadowed figure. “You can call it a strategy by Taliban who selected a symbolic head but kept the real power manager behind the scene,” he said.

Haibatullah was part of Maulvi Younas Khalis’ Hizb-e-Islami group and had participated in Afghan jihad against the Soviet occupation forces. After the death of Maulvi Younas Khalis, he joined Taliban along with many other fighters of the group.

Security experts are, however, sceptic of the prospects for peace in the region in the aftermath of Mullah Mansour’s death. They say that violence is expected to escalate in the war-torn Afghanistan. They argue Taliban’s first priority would be to keep their own house in order and unite the fighters.

Tahir Khan said the selection of new chief will follow the process of allegiance in the coming days and then nominations of the governors in the provinces will take place. He said that Haibatullah and Mansour had fought side by side in the past and were very close to each other.