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| Hibatullah Akhundzada (Image: Wiki Commons) |
The new leader of the Afghan Taliban Haibatullah Akhundzada reportedly taught and preached openly for 15 years at the Al Haaj mosque in Kuchlak, near Quetta in Pakistan.
According to a report by Reuters, Akhundzada is now believed to be in hiding in Afghanistan.
Akhundzada reportedly slipped across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border just two days before being promoted to the group's leader in May this year – after his predecessor Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a U.S drone strike.
But a spokesman for the U.S State Department's South Asia bureau said it was not "not in a position to confirm Haibatullah Akhundzada's whereabouts, past or present."
"Once he became Emir, he left with his whole family," said Hafiz Abdul Majeed, who runs the Al Haaj mosque, adding that he himself studied for several years under Akhundzada.
"You can't teach religion and run (the Taliban's) government at the same time. And it would of course have been dangerous for us and the students and the mosque if he remained here."
Read the full story at TOLOnews