13/08/2022
Long after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the Taliban's founder, Mullah Omar, was long believed to have fled the country. But in 2019 discovered that he had never left, and instead lived in Zabul province, even close to US military bases until his death in 2013. With Bette and , I traveled to the two houses where he lived, in hiding. Picture 1) The Mullah Omar mosque in Kandahar. Construction started when he was the Taliban leader in the 1990s. 2) Cloth patches with Mullah Omar and the current Taliban leader sold in Kandahar. 3) & 4) Men in the mosque in Hajji Ibrahim in Kandahar where Mullah Omar led prayer before becoming the Taliban leader. 5) 30-year-old Shafiullah from Marjah, Helmand, lies in Kandahar’s so-called Arab cemetery, where Al Qaeda fighters are believed to have been buried. Some locals believe visiting the cemetery can bring miracles. 6) The local mullah stands outside the house where Mullah Mohammad Omar lived in Ghoara, Zabul, after the US and NATO invasion of 2001. 7) The shelf that led to his secret room. US forces visited the house several times but didn't find Mullah Omar. 8) Mohammed Asrar stands with 3 of his children in the room where Mullah Omar lived after the US and NATO invasion of 2001. He was a boy when his late brother sheltered the Taliban leader there. 9) Girls stand in the village of Omarzo next to the house where Mullah Omar spent the last years of his life. A small sign pinned to the side of the house (left) warns off the curious, saying that “pilgrimages to the house of Supreme Leader Mullah Mohammad Omar are strictly banned until further notice, even if you are a dignitary.” 10) Men sell mangos, fruit juice and other street food on the main roundabout of Qalat, the capital of Zabul province. For The
