The Taliban on Sunday revealed the ultimate resting place of the motion’s founder, Mullah Omar, whose demise and burial they stored secret for years.

Rumours surrounding Omar’s well being and whereabouts abounded after the Taliban have been kicked out of energy in 2001 by a US-led invasion, they usually solely admitted in April 2015 that he had died two years earlier.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid instructed AFP Sunday that senior leaders of the motion attended a ceremony at his gravesite earlier within the day close to Omarzo, in Suri district of Zabul province.

The Taliban returned to energy in August final yr, routing authorities forces because the US-led army that propped up the regime ended a 20-year occupation.

“Since plenty of enemies have been round and the nation was occupied, to keep away from harm to the tomb it was stored secret,” Mujahid mentioned.

“Solely the shut relations have been conscious of the place,” he added.

Photos launched by officers confirmed Taliban leaders gathered round a easy white brick tomb, coated with what seems to be gravel and enclosed in a inexperienced steel cage.

“Now the choice has been made… there aren’t any points for the folks to go to the tomb,” Mujahid mentioned.

Omar, who was aged round 55 when he died, based the Taliban in 1993 as an antidote to the internecine civil battle that erupted following the decade-long Soviet occupation.

Underneath his management the Taliban launched a particularly austere model of Islamic rule, barring ladies from public life and introducing harsh public punishments — together with executions and floggings.

Massoud tomb reported vandalised

Omar’s ceremony comes a day after provincial Taliban officers denied experiences that the Panjshir Valley tomb of resistance hero Ahmad Shah Massoud had been vandalised, an act Mujahid mentioned could be “punished” if true.

Massoud has a combined legacy within the nation, the place he’s hailed by bizarre Afghans for main the resistance in opposition to the Soviet occupation, however loathed by the Taliban he additionally fought till his 2001 assassination by Al-Qaeda.

His tomb is in an imposing granite and marble mausoleum overlooking the picturesque Panjshir Valley, and guarded by Taliban fighters since their takeover of the nation in August final yr.

Native residents mentioned a newly arrived contingent of fighters smashed the tombstone, and video of the desecrated grave — which couldn’t be verified — was revealed by native media and circulating extensively on social channels.

“It occurred when the brand new forces entered Panjshir. The brand new forces from Helmand and Kandahar destroyed the tombstone of the nationwide hero,” one resident instructed AFP.

Nasrullah Malakzada, head of knowledge and tradition of Panjshir, province, denied the tomb had been broken and issued a video purporting to indicate it intact.

The clip, nonetheless, pointedly didn’t show the whole construction — notably the half seen broken within the authentic video.

Malakzada refused requests by journalists to go to or photograph the tomb for themselves.

Mujahid instructed reporters that no person had the suitable to insult the useless.

“Beforehand we had punished those that dedicated such acts,” he mentioned, including “this might be investigated as properly and mandatory motion might be taken”.