Kabul: The Taliban on Friday confirmed the death of their elusive chief Hibatullah Akhundzada who has shepherded the group since 2016 saying that he died in a suicide attack in Pakistan last year, sources told CNN-News18.
Senior Taliban member Amir al-Mu’minin Sheikh said Hibatullah Akhundzada was ‘martyred’ in a suicide attack orchestrated by Pakistani forces last year, sources said.
CNN-News18 had earlier reported about Akhundzada either being in the custody of Pakistani forces, or him being killed by them.
Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s supreme leader, had often struck mystery, having never made a public appearance. According to Hollie Mc Kay of the New York Post, the photographs of him circulating on the internet appeared to be years old.
Furthermore, his inability to address the public had prompted a new surge of conspiracy theories, even inside Taliban circles, that he was no longer alive.