Pakistan confirms Mullah Akhter Mansour death, deletes fake IDs

Pakistan on Thursday confirmed the death of the Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Akhter Mansour in a drone strike on May 21 but said the dialogue was still the most viable option.

Adviser to Prime Minister on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz said the drone strike had undermined the Afghan peace process.

Addressing a news conference here, days after Pakistan summoned the US ambassador to convey its serious concerns at the drone strike, he confirmed the man killed was the Taliban leader who was travelling on a fake identity.

On May 18, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the US and China had agreed that politically negotiated settlement was the most viable option rather than Efforts should continue to bring Taliban on the table, Mr Aziz said.

“This understanding has not been respected,” Mr Aziz added and recalled that in July 2015, direct peace talks between the representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban were scuttled at a key stage when the issue of reduction in violence was to be discussed.

Pakistan had brokered the first ever Afghan peace talks in the scenic town of Murree near Islamabad in early July last year but the second round was cancelled after the Afghan government’s revealed the death of the Taliban chief, Mullah Omar. “In less than a year, peace process has been scuttled twice,” the Pakistani adviser said, adding that Pakistan believes there is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan government on Thursday claimed cancellation of 2,35,000 fake National Identity Cards (NICs) after the killing of Taliban leader Maullah Akhtar Mansour, who carried a fake Pakistani card.

The decision has opened a new Pandora’s box as all these NICs have been enrolled in 2013 election’s voter lists and has raised questions over transparency of these elections.

Interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said that 6,000 NICs had been cancelled in 2013 from June to December, 22,000 in 2014, 9,60,686 in 2015 and 1,11,000 NICs have been seized in the year 2016.

Election Commission Pakistan (ECP) sources said that all fake NICs were registered in 2013 general elections. The identification of a total number of bogus votes would be detected through proper audit but might take a long period of time, sources added.