Word: mullah
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...Kandahar, a dusty, ramshackle place swirling with intrigue and all manner of scheming, a great Afghan mystery envelops us all - where is Mullah Omar? To foreign eyes the Muslim cleric who carried the Taliban from this, their spiritual home, to rule the country vanished with the fall of his regime five weeks ago. There is no sign, no trace. He is invisible to our technology...
...Kandaharis need little of such things. I can't shake the feeling that to them Mullah Omar's location is less of a mystery and more of a riddle to which they may already have the answer. But it's riddle that can't be solved in Kandahar. To the west is Helmand province, an unruly place that makes the Kandaharis wary. "They're wild people," the Kandaharis' are quick to counsel. Deep in Helmand's north, guarded by great mountains, is Baghran. A formidable domain - and the sanctuary where Omar is thought to have fled...
...could follow, to find Mullah Omar's trail through the heart of the country of the Taliban. What I found was that even now, the Taliban leaders have a hold on power there - and they're not likely to surrender Omar anytime soon...
...Taliban commander said to be sheltering Omar, had agreed to surrender and had relinquished some arms. "Shir Mohammed and the Americans did not trust him," Mirwali continued, "So they asked Rais to go inside Baghran." We asked Mirwali if, as intelligence reports and Kandahar commanders say, Rais was hiding Mullah Omar in his Baghran realm. "This issue is unconfirmed," Mirwali said unhurriedly, though Taliban commanders who withdrew from Gereshk went that way. We told him we wanted to go to Baghran. We asked for soldiers. He shook his head, "If I have permission I will give you soldiers," adding...
...told us Baghran was peaceful, the surrender a success. Rais the warlord had forsaken his power. "Rais is an old man, a leader of his tribe and a supporter of the government. He will live in the future as a white-bearded old man and will not support Mullah Omar or Osama bin Laden," he said...