After an absence of about 20 years;

The Afghan Taliban movement and its late founder, Mullah Muhammad Omar, returned to the forefront of events once again, and the movement and its leader became the talk of the world.

What is the story of this man who succeeded in planting the seed of this organization that included students of religious schools known as the Taliban (plural of the word student in the Pashto language) in the province of Kandahar (southwest of Afghanistan) on the border with Pakistan in 1994?

village chief

Mullah Muhammad Omar was born in 1954 in the city of Trinkot, the capital of Uruzgan Province.

His father died when he was young, so he was raised by his uncles and took the responsibility of providing for his family at an early age.

- He did not complete his studies and became the sheikh of the village before joining the Mujahideen and fighting the Soviet occupation.

- His cognitive abilities were modest and his address to the masses was weak, and therefore he did not have public speeches or press interviews, and he had no experience in the political and organizational field.

Like all Taliban leaders, he belongs to the Deobandi school, which is a Sunni trend in the Hanafi school of thought, founded in the city of Deoband in India.

He is distinguished by his strict views towards women and many Islamic rituals. After the establishment of Pakistan, the number of Deobandi religious schools increased and a large number of Afghans joined them, many of whom formed the Taliban movement.

Political life

- Mullah Omar spent the period of jihad against the Russian forces as the leader of an armed group in the leader's front, Mullah Muhammad, of the Islamic Society led by Burhanuddin Rabbani in Kandahar Province.

- He lost his right eye during the jihad against the Soviet occupation between 1989-1992, and moved from organization to organization until the matter was finally settled before the emergence of the Taliban movement in the "Islamic coup movement" led by Mawlawi Muhammad Nabi.

- After the Mujahideen entered Kabul, he wanted to complete his studies at the "Ghira" school in the Singh Sar district of the Maiwand district of Kandahar province, and from there he began to think about fighting corruption, so he gathered religious school students for this purpose in the summer of 1994 and began working with the help of some merchants and field commanders.

"Prince of the Faithful"

August 1994: Mullah Omar rose to prominence when the Afghan Taliban chose him as its emir.

- After the movement reached the outskirts of Kabul, a general meeting of scholars was held in which about 1,500 people participated in late March and early April 1996, and he was unanimously elected as the Emir of the Taliban movement and called "the Commander of the Faithful".

Since that date, the movement has considered him as its legitimate emir, who has all the rights of the Caliph, so it is not permissible to violate his order.

This characteristic gave a religious character to the man who was hidden from the public eye to give him prestige in the midst of the public, and to hide aspects of his personality, as he did not participate in public meetings.

- Experts in Afghan affairs considered him the most ambiguous leader;

As there is not a single clear-cut photograph of him.

During the Taliban rule, Mullah Omar lived with his family in a modest house in the city of Kandahar, and he used one car for normal transportation within the city, not caring much about personal security.

He was the real ruler of Afghanistan;

Where all the important decisions were issued with his signature, and he managed the affairs of movement and the affairs of the government in Kabul and the states by phone and wireless from Kandahar.

- Since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, Mullah Omar's hiding place has not been known. The United States of America chased after him and allocated a prize of 10 million dollars to anyone who leads to him or helps arrest him to bring him to court, without reaching anything.

- As it remained hidden, observers of the Afghan issue expected it to be hidden in the Pashtun tribes or in the Pakistani lands.

July 2011: The Taliban denied his death, after text messages from phones used by some of its leaders were distributed to the media announcing his death, and accused US intelligence of hacking the phones of its officials.

July 2012: Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai invites him to run in the 2014 presidential elections on the condition that he give up his arms, saying, "If the people elect him, it is good and he can lead the country."

October 13, 2013: In a statement, he announced the movement's rejection of the proposed bilateral security agreement between Afghanistan and the United States, according to which it "will not be acceptable to the Afghan people."

May 2014: He issued a statement praising the deal to exchange 5 Taliban detainees in Guantanamo Bay in exchange for the movement's release of an American soldier, describing it as a "great victory".

- April 5, 2015: The movement published on its website a detailed biography of its leader, Mullah Omar, saying that it is a celebration of the 19th anniversary of Omar's leadership of the movement, stressing that Mullah Omar is actively involved in "jihadist actions", denying speculations of his death.

The biography described Mullah Muhammad Omar as a charismatic personality, and included a number of tales describing his bravery on the battlefield, and said that his favorite weapon was the RPG-7 rocket launcher.

his last years

- Press reports said that Mullah Omar lived his years after the American invasion of Afghanistan inside his country until his death, and did not go to Pakistan, as the CIA and other parties announced.

- Reports concluded that the mullah lived in hiding near a US base in southern Afghanistan until his death, in stark contrast to what has long been reported by US officials that he fled to Pakistan after the US overthrew the Taliban regime in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

- Reports confirmed that he was living with Taliban member Jabbar Omari, the mullah's bodyguard who protected him until his death, and he was receiving rare visits every few months by envoys who moved between him and the Taliban decision-making body in Quetta, Pakistan

- Reports indicated that Mullah Omar handed over daily Taliban operations in late 2001 to his former defense minister, Mullah Obaidullah, and fled from Kandahar to his hometown of Zabul province in the south, where he spent several years in the provincial capital hiding in the house of his driver, Abdul Samad Ostad.

- The reports added that after the US military established a base only a few minutes walk from the house in which he lives, Al-Mulla moved to a further area, which is Seurai, from which his family hails, and his bodyguard found a brick house for him, which he kept until his death in 2013.

second bunker

The second safe house was also a few miles from a smaller American base known as the Forward Operating Base "Wolverine", which is located south of the capital of Zabul, and around it are many villages that are said to be controlled by the Taliban, and one of those who served at the base stated that many American soldiers were killed There while on patrol.

The mullah lived in seclusion in Siurai, accompanied by my life, in the hospitality of a family. He rarely mingled with them and did not leave the house except to be exposed to the sun. He only asked for henna to dye his beard, and “Neswar” which is a local tobacco.

mystery of death

Al-Mulla fell ill in 2013 and refused to see a doctor or travel for treatment in Pakistan and died in Zabul. His family buried him and agreed with a group of Taliban leaders to keep his death a secret, at a time when the US military was preparing for a complete withdrawal as planned by the administration of President Barack Obama.

- July 29, 2015: Afghan government sources announced the death of Mullah Omar, without giving any details about the circumstances of the death.

- An Afghan government official told the German News Agency at the time that Mullah Omar died two years ago in Pakistan after falling ill, adding that he had assurances from the Pakistani authorities and Taliban sources that he died there two years ago due to an illness.

- September 13, 2015: Mullah Muhammad Yaqoub, the eldest son of Mullah Omar and head of the military committee that enjoys great influence in the Taliban, came out in an audio recording, saying that his father had died of natural causes, calling for unity and dispelling rumors that his father's death was mysterious in light of a dispute over movement leadership.

Jacob said that his father was sick for some time, and then his health deteriorated, indicating that he may have been suffering from hepatitis C (C).

- Jacob confirmed that his father remained in Afghanistan even after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, and he died and was buried there.