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Taliban members urge followers' support of new leader

By Tomas Monzon

QUETTA, Pakistan, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- The Taliban is urging their followers to support their newly appointed leader and ignore propaganda that wants to undermine the organization.

A statement released Sunday cited the passing of the Amir-ul-Momineen (commander of the faithful) Mullah Omar as "a huge loss for the Islamic Emirate, the whole Muslim world and particularly for the Islamic Jihadi movements."

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In its statement, the Taliban threw its support behind Mullah Aktar Mansour, Omar's replacement, whom it argues was "appointed with complete legitimacy" and that followers should "fully obey him." It also warns against enemies of Islam who "misuse this kind of critical circumstances [sic] ... by negative propaganda."

Omar's April 2013 death was confirmed on July 29 and blamed on tuberculosis.

His replacement has led the top political chief of the Taliban to resign. Tayyab Agha, who also once served as Omar's personal secretary, criticized the Taliban for keeping Omar's death secret for so long and said the Pakistani governments' influence in choosing Omar's replacement was a "great historical mistake."

Agha's resignation points to a split in the group, as internal conflict about whether to seek peace with the Afghan government and how to possibly end more than a decade of fighting, has arisen. A meeting between the Taliban and government officials was scheduled for Friday but has now been delayed due to Omar's death.

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Omar founded the Taliban in the 1990s but has not been seen in public since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan by U.S. forces.

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