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Taliban’s top dissident Mullah Rasool ‘detained’ in Pakistan
Pakistan has ‘detained’ the leader of a breakaway faction of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Muhammad Rasool, Pakistani media reported on Tuesday.
After the dead of Mullah Omar, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Rasool opposed appointment of Mullah Akhtar Mansoor as the new leader of the group and headed the splinter group of Taliban in western Afghanistan.
Many Taliban commanders, including the breakaway faction’s deputy chief Mullah Mansoor Dadullah and his brother, were killed in internal rifts between the two rival groups.
Reportedly Mullah Rasool was taken into custody after he had fled recent infighting in southern Afghanistan.
“I can confirm that Mullah Rasool has been arrested by authorities in Pakistan after he crossed the border,” a Taliban leader has said to the Express Tribune.
After the Afghan government called on all anti-government militant groups to join the peace process, in an interview Mullah Rasool called the peace efforts ‘Pakistani dictated’.
No Taliban groups and Pakistani authorities have officially made a comment about this report.