Mullah Omar dead? Taliban says no

Kabul/Islamabad, (IANS) One-eyed Taliban leader Mullah Omar has been killed in Pakistan, an Afghan TV channel said Monday. The Taliban promptly denied this.

"Mullah Omar was killed on way from Quetta to North Waziristan," Xinhua cited Afghanistan's TOLO television as reporting.

However, it did not provide details on how he was killed and by whom.

A security official too confirmed the killing, saying: "It is correct that Mullah Omar has been killed."

Mullah Omar was Afghanistan's de facto head of state from 1996 to late 2001.

Soon after the news about
ullah Omar broke, the Pakistani Taliban said the reports were not true.

"Tahreek-e-Taliban has strongly denied that Mulla Omar was killed, while he was on his way from Quetta to Waziristan, as claimed by the Afghan intelligence agency and a section of the media reported," Geo TV said.

According to the US National Terrorism Centre, Mullah Omar's Taliban regime in Afghanistan sheltered Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network in the years prior to the Sep 11 attacks.

Osama was gunned down May 2 by US commandos in Pakistan's Abbottabad city.

Although Operation Enduring Freedom launched post-9/11 removed the Taliban regime from power in Afghanistan, Mullah Omar was at large. The US has a $10 million award on him.