Taliban leader in secret talks was a fake: Report

In an script that could have been lifted from a spy thriller, NATO and Afghan leaders have been jolted to find they were dealing with a fake and an impostor, months into the secret high profile-talks to end the Afghan war.

Mulla Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, one of the senior most commanders of the Taliban with whom the Afghan leaders had been sitting across the tables for months, has turned out not what he claimed, the New York Times reported.

For months the high-level meetings backed by NATO appeared to be showing promise, if only because of the appearance of a certain insurgent leader at one end of the table.

But now, it turns out, not to be so. US and Afghan officials now say the Afghan man was an impostor and discussions conducted with the assistance of NATO appeared to have achieved little.

"It's not him", a shocked Western diplomat was quoted by the paper as exclaiming, confirming "and we gave him a lot of money".

Now American officials confirm that a man claiming to be Mulla Mansour was even a member of the Taliban leadership.

NATO and Afghan officials said they had three meetings with the man, who was flown from Pakistan, where senior Taliban leaders are suspected to be holed up.

The fake top Taliban commander, Times said, was even taken to meet President Hamid Karzai after being escorted into a NATO aircraft and ushered into the Presidential Palace.

The episode, Times said, underscores the uncertain and even bizarre nature of the atmosphere and circumstances in which Afghan and American leaders search for ways to bring nine-year-old US-led war to an end.

Mystery shrouds the top Taliban leadership including its one-eyed chief Mulla Mohammed Omar, who have rarely been seen in public, even during their five year control over Kabul.

The top Taliban leadership, Times said, is constituted of barely literate clerics, from the countryside, almost all of whom have never been seen in person by the Americans, NATO or Afghan officials.

The paper said, the Taliban leadership are believed to be hiding in Pakistan, possibly with the assistance of the Pakistani government, which receives billions of dollar in American aid.

Mulla Mansour by some accounts was considered the second ranking official in the Taliban, behind only the founder Mulla Omar.

Doubts about his identity arose after the third meeting with Afghan official held in the southern city of Kandahar.

It was a Pushton leader who had known the cleric, years ago told Afghan officials that the man at the table was not him.

But by the time, the impostor had been given sizeable sums of money to take part in talks and to help persuade him to return.

While, the Afghan officials harbour that the man, now described as fake Mulla Mansour would return for another rounds of talks. American and other Western officials say they have concluded that the man in question is an impostor.

NYT said that White House officials had asked it to withold Mansour's name from an article last months, expressing concern that it may put his life at risk.

The Times said, the status of the two Taliban leaders said to be involved in talks was still not clear.

The identity of the fake Mansour is puzzling the Afghan and American officials.

Some say the man simply may have been a freelance fraud, posing as a Taliban leader to enrich himself.

While others say, the man may been a Taliban agent. "They are playing games", Afghan officials claimed.

Others suspect that the fake Taliban leader, whose identity is not known, may have been dispatched by the Pakistani intelligence service, known by its initials, the ISI.

Times said, elements within the ISI have long played a double game in Afghanistan, re-assuring US officials that they are pursuing the Taliban while at the same time providing support for the insurgents.

Publicly, the Taliban leadership has stuck to the line that are no talks at all.