Islamabad : Amid a widening rift over succession following Mullah Omar’s death, senior Taliban leaders opposed to Mullah Akhtar Mansour’s nomination as the group’s supremo have launched a parallel council, according to a media report.
The senior Taliban members, opposed to Mullah Mansour’s ascendancy, yesterday launched their parallel ‘Shura’ or council and declared themselves as the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’, the Express Tribune reported.
“A few people announced Mullah Akhtar Mansour as the new leader at a meeting where neither majority of the Shura members nor Ulema were invited,” the council said in a statement.
“They imposed Mullah Mansour’s leadership on the Islamic Emirate for vested interests,” it said.
The dissidents were quoted as saying that they would convene a meeting of the council members, Islamic scholars and national figures to elect a new chief.
Mutasim Agha Jan, the former finance minister and a close confidant of Mullah Omar, has also refused to submit to the leadership of Mullah Mansour, an official close to Mutasim told the daily.
