Afghan Taliban deny former chief ran real estate business in Karachi

Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, former Taliban leader, is seen in this undated handout photograph by the Taliban. (photo source: Taliban Handout)

The wreckage of a vehicle that Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour was said to be traveling in near Afghan borders in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan on May 21, 2016. ( AP/File)

• Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor acquired two ID cards, owned six immovable properties, officials say
• Taliban spokesman says Mansoor had no time for such a trade and was never involved in it

KARACHI: The Afghan Taliban denied on Saturday media reports that the former chief of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, who was killed in a US drone strike in May 2016 in Pakistan, had run an active real estate business in Karachi. 
Reports in local and international media this week cited documents available with Pakistan’s premier security agency, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), to say Mansoor had acquired two national identity cards in the name of Muhammad Ali and Gul Muhammad and used them to run a real estate business. 
“Shaheed Mansoor Sahib neither had time for such a trade nor did [he] conduct such a business,” the Taliban said in a statement. “We do not understand the purpose behind such reports but can confidently say that such sketchy reports about the esteemed leaders of the Islamic Emirate [of Afghanistan] are neither beneficial for anyone nor can it harm the lofty character of Shaheed Mansoor.”
According to a first information report (FIR) submitted with FIA’s Counter-Terrorism Wing in Islamabad on July 25, 2019, Mansoor lived in Karachi and ran a real estate business despite being designated under the UN Security Council Resolution 1267, which requires all states to freeze the assets of people and organizations on a list established by the resolution. The report says Mansoor was the owner of at least six immovable properties, including a house, a plot of land and four flats in different areas of Karachi.
Pakistan’s Hum News channel, which first broke the story, said the former Taliban chief had two different bank accounts under two different names in two different banks.
“While opening his bank accounts, the accused Mullah Akhtar Mansoor used the name of M/s Iqra Estate Agency,” an investigation officer was quoted as saying in the FIR report. 
The investigation agency has also identified a person named Ammar, son of Muhammad Yasir, as a frontman for the former Taliban chief in Karachi. 
Mansoor assumed the leadership of the Taliban in July 2015, replacing the Taliban founder and spiritual head Mullah Mohammad Omar. The Afghan National Security Directorate first confirmed his death, saying he had been killed in the Dalbandin area of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province. Pakistan’s government at the time said the drone strike was a violation of its sovereignty.