Afghan Taliban leader preached in Pakistan for years, despite government ‘crackdown’

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The Al Haaj mosque where Taliban chief Habibullah Akhundzada lived and taught for years in Kuchlak outside Quetta, Pakistan. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:30pm, 10 Oct 2016Updated: 2:30pm, 10 Oct 2016

For 15 years until his sudden disappearance in May, the new leader of the Afghan Taliban insurgency openly taught and preached at the Al Haaj mosque in a dusty town in southwestern Pakistan, associates and students said.

Details of Haibatullah Akhundzada’s life in Kuchlak, near the city of Quetta, have not previously been reported, and could put further pressure on Pakistan to do more to crack down on militants openly living there.

The row over how far Islamabad will go to get rid of jihadi fighters and leaders has hurt relations between Pakistan and Washington, in part because nearly 10,000 American soldiers are in Afghanistan supporting the war against insurgents.

A spokesman for the US State Department’s South Asia bureau said it was not “not in a position to confirm Haibatullah Akhundzada’s whereabouts, past or present”.

Akhundzada is now believed to be in hiding after crossing the long and porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, but not before going untouched in Kuchlak, located in Baluchistan province, as he rose up the ranks of the Afghan Taliban.

He was promoted to “emir” in May after a US drone killed his predecessor, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, in another part of Pakistan, a strike that infuriated Islamabad but reflected growing impatience over what Washington sees as ambivalence towards its enemies.