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Both the Taliban and the Pakistani spy agency, uncomfortable bedfellows in any circumstances, denied Thursday a report suggesting that Mullah Omar had suffered a heart attack and was treated with the help of the intelligence network. They poured scorn on a Washington Post report Tuesday that quoted a private intelligence network source as saying the Taliban's spiritual leader had been hospitalized in Karachi with some brain damage. The Post said the one-eyed Islamist, who disappeared after the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan, appeared to have suffered a heart attack January 7 and had been taken to a hospital near the southern metropolis. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahib told AFP, "Supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar is absolutely fine and healthy and is continuing his jihad activities in Afghanistan. We were informed of this news through media only, and his heart surgery in Karachi is a mere rumor created by our enemies." The newspaper cited a report by a private intelligence network run by former US security officials, known as "The Eclipse Group," which quoted a doctor at the hospital. The Post said the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency had "rushed him to a hospital in Karachi, where he was given heparin (an anticoagulant) and operated on," and that he was released to the ISI after a few days. As well as a heart attack, the doctor reportedly said Omar appeared to have suffered some brain damage and slurred speech after his operation. A spokesman for Pakistan's military, of which the ISI is a part, "strongly contradicted the news item ... about the medical treatment of Afghan Taliban Mullah Mohammad Omar at Karachi," in a statement. "(The) news is unfounded and concocted to serve vested interests." |
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