Where Is Mullah Omar Now?

t has been a little over eight years since the supreme commander of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar, vanished into the inhospitable, mountainous terrain of Afghanistan. Like a shifting mirage on a desert road, he was said to have been sighted at different places in his country. But it’s now agreed that Mullah Omar, who has a $10-million bounty on his head, has all this while been hiding in Balochistan’s capital, Quetta, masterminding his forces’ attacks on the Americans.

Pakistan has steadfastly refuted this claim, but American military officials insist that elements within the ISI have been protecting Mullah Omar and other Taliban leaders in Quetta.

Apprehensive that the Obama administration could try to target the Quetta shura through drone attacks, there are speculations that Omar and others would shift base to Karachi. For instance, Newsweek claimed the most appropriate hiding place for the Taliban leaders was Karachi, “where, well out of America’s reach, they can operate more freely”. Karachi’s large Pashtun population, around 3.5 million, could be relied upon to protect the Taliban, who mostly belong to the same ethnic group. However, Pakistani authorities continue to refute these reports.

On July 8, 2004, international media had first reported Mullah Omar’s presence in Quetta, stating that Afghan interrogators were told by Mullah Sakhi Mujahid, a close aide of the Taliban ameer, that Omar led the Taliban forces from his Balochistan hideout. On February 25, 2006, President Hamid Karzai handed over intelligence information to Islamabad, indicating that Mullah Omar and his key associates were hiding in Pakistan.

Then, in March 2006, then Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah said Afghanistan had shared with Islamabad credible intelligence about Mullah Omar’s whereabouts. When Pakistani officials said the information was outdated, Abdullah countered that Afghanistan wouldn’t have handed over information it did not believe in.

Analysts cite Pakistan’s alacrity in offering to mediate between the US and the Afghan Taliban as incontrovertible proof that Islamabad has a fair idea about Mullah Omar’s hideout.