KABUL — The Afghan intelligence agency said Monday that the reclusive leader of the Taliban has disappeared from a suspected hideout in Pakistan and has been out of contact with his commanders for days — adding further questions about Mullah Mohammad Omar after a media report said he was killed.
The Taliban denied the claim on the Afghan news channel Tolo that Omar was shot dead while being moved inside Pakistan with the help of a former Pakistani intelligence official. The Taliban spokesman countered that Omar was alive and somewhere inside Afghanistan.
The conflicting reports, however, underscore the complicated disputes and suspicions between Afghanistan and Pakistan as the U.S. intensifies pressure on both sides: urging Afghan forces to step up efforts against militants and pushing Pakistani authorities to help unravel the networks that aided Osama bin Laden.
Pakistan’s foreign minister, meanwhile, was in Kabul for talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has been increasingly outspoken in the need for Pakistan to take a stronger role in the fight against militant groups.
There also has been much speculation the U.S. might ramp up efforts to kill or capture the Taliban leader after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2. President Barack Obama has said he would order another covert military raid if it were necessary to stop terrorist attacks.
Attacks have increased in Afghanistan since bin Laden’s death and the start of the Taliban’s yearly spring offensive. On Monday, four NATO service members were killed in an explosion in the east, NATO said in a statement. Another soldier died in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, NATO said late Monday. The military alliance did not provide details on the attacks or the nationalities of the dead.
In a separate incident, a suicide bomber attacked a gathering of tribal leaders in the eastern Laghman province, killing five people having lunch at a hotel, said governor’s spokesman Faizanullah Patan.
Meanwhile, officials said they had arrested five suspects accused of aiding a suicide bombing Saturday at the nation’s main military hospital in Kabul that killed at least six Afghan medical students. One of those arrested was an Afghan soldier who allegedly allowed the suicide bomber, dressed in a military uniform, to enter the medical complex.
