Reports create uncertainty over Omar surrender
There are conflicting reports today over whether the interim Afghan government and the US Defence Department know the whereabouts of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.
An intelligence official in the interim administration said negotiations for Mullah Omar’s surrender are ongoing in the Baghran area of Helmand province.
However, Gul Agha, governor of Kandahar, said the negotiations concern the disarmament of local tribes and not the arrest of the Taliban leader.
Agha said he and 1,500 of his fighters are still searching for Omar in the mountains in the south of the country.
Nusrat Ullah, the intelligence official, gave a different version of events, saying negotiators are currently hammering out Omar’s final surrender terms.
He said: "We have received positive response from those tribal chieftains who are sheltering Omar and his associates in Baghran.
"A breakthrough in this regard is expected soon."
The US has apparently threatened to bomb villages in Baghran unless the tribal leaders hand over Mullah Omar, the one-eyed cleric who led the Taliban to power in Afghanistan in 1994.
