Senior Taliban commander dies of cancer in Pakistan
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This undated photo purportedly shows Mullah Muhammad Hassan Rahmani, a senior member of the Taliban in Afghanistan who reportedly died late on February 9, 2016, in a hospital in southwestern Pakistan.
A senior member of Taliban’s leadership died in a hospital in Pakistan’s southwest, in what could embarrass Islamabad and expose its alleged links to the militants in neighboring Afghanistan.
Sources said on Tuesday that Mullah Muhammad Hassan Rahmani, a member of Taliban’s Shoura Council, died overnight of cancer in a hospital in the city of Quetta.
Taliban's website confirmed the death of Rahmani, saying he was an influential militant commander during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and lost a leg in the conflict.
Rahmani, who was purportedly in his fifties when he died, was also for a while the governor of Kandahar Province during Taliban's 1996-2001 rule over Afghanistan.
“He died in Quetta late Monday night and today his body was moved to Afghanistan. The burial will probably take place in Kandahar,” a senior Taliban leader said, adding, “He was a prominent figure in the Taliban leadership and there were some rumors he might soon announce his own splinter group.”
ME
