Kabul: Pakistan benefited the most from the death of former chief of Afghan Taliban Mullah Akhtar Mansour, who was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan's Balochistan province, reports said today.
Though Pakistan is widely believed to be supporting Taliban by providing them weapons, money, training and sanctuaries, report say that Islamabad wanted to get rid of Mansour.
Pakistan had, however, hit out at the US for launching a drone strike on its soil that killed Taliban chief, describing it as a “violation of its sovereignty”.
Another example why Pakistan would benefit from his death is because of his failure to reunite the Taliban, which had split into two factions following the death of founding leader Mullah Muhammad Omar. Splinter Taliban group led by Mullah Rasool moved to southwestern Afghanistan and opposed Mansour’s leadership of the group.
Mansour assumed the leadership in July 2015, replacing Taliban founder and the one-eyed reclusive long-time spiritual head Mullah Mohammad Omar, who died in Pakistan in 2013.
Another position where Pakistan could be benefited is disruption of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) following Mansour’s death.
Reports also say that there was a fall out between Pakistan’s spy agency ISI and Mansour in recent months.
Pakistan’s failure to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table has led to pressure from the United States and Afghanistan. And the pressure from Washington became intense when its Congress decided to block U.S. funding for a sale of F-16s to Islamabad.
