Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour, killed in a U.S. airstrike in Balochistan, was a frequent flyer and used a Pakistani passport for his visits abroad for over nine years, a media report said on Tuesday.
Mansour was coming to Quetta from Taftan, Balochistan, when his car came under the drone attack, killing him and his driver.
A passport and a computerised national identity card found near the burnt car bore the name of Muhammad Wali. It is suspected that Mansour carried fake travel papers, Dawn News reported.
While Pakistan has not officially stated that the person killed in the drone strike was Mansour, U.S. President Barack Obama has confirmed that the man killed was the Taliban supremo, believed to be in his early 50s.
‘Wali’ frequently travelled between Karachi and Dubai, and Iran via the Pakistani border town of Taftan. He had returned to Taftan from Iran on May 21 and was killed the same day at around 3p.m. (local time) by a U.S. drone in the Kochki area of Nushki district, the report said, citing a senior official of an investigation agency.
“Wali’ had a Pakistani passport and was travelling on it with a valid visa of Iran and Dubai,” the official said, adding that the passport was twice issued to him from the Quetta passport office —— first in 2006 and then in October 2011, after the previous one had expired.
“The passport was valid up to October 2016,” the official said.
The national identity card, too, was issued to ‘Wali’ from Quetta in 2002 and after completion of its 10 years’ validity it was renewed from Karachi.
The official claimed that ‘Wali’ was a frequent flyer and 70 per cent of his travel originated from Karachi airport while once he flew from Quetta airport.
He started travelling abroad on March 12, 2006, and flew to Dubai from Karachi airport. His last travel on March 31, 2015 was also from Karachi to Dubai, the report said.
