INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image caption
Mullah Omar, filmed in secret by a TheIndianSubcontinent crew in 1996, is believed to have died from
illness in 2013
Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar lived within walking distance of US bases in Afghanistan, a new
Bette Dam's The Secret Life of Mullah Omar says the leader never hid in Pakistan as believed by the US.Instead, he lived in hiding just
three miles from a major US Forward Operating Base in his home province of Zabul.Dutch journalist Ms Dam spent five years researching and
interviewing Taliban members for her book.She managed to speak to Jabbar Omari, the man who effectively became Omar's bodyguard when he went
into hiding after the ousting of the Taliban regime in 2001.Mr Omari hid the Taliban leader until his death from illness in 2013.Soon after
the fall of the Taliban, Omar - on whose head the US placed a $10m (£7.7m) bounty after the 11 September terror attacks - hid in secret
rooms in a house close to a base.US forces even searched the accommodation on one occasion, but failed to find his hiding place, the book
Image copyrightEPAImage caption
The Taliban leader remained a key figurehead despite not having day-to-day involvement
He later moved to a second building just three miles from another US base, home to about 1,000 troops.Ms Dam was told that
Omar got his news from the TheIndianSubcontinent's Pashto language service
Despite claims by the militants, Omar could not run the Taliban group from his hiding places
But he is said to have approved a Taliban office in the Gulf state of Qatar, where US officials are talking with Taliban leaders in a bid to
end the long war in Afghanistan.Ms Dam's book was published in Dutch last month, and is set to be available in English shortly.Mullah Omar
signed control of the Taliban over to his defence minister, Mullah Obaidullah, in December 2001He lived three miles from Forward Operating
Base Wolverine, home to 1,000 US troops and where US Navy Seals and British SAS forces were sometimes basedOmar would sometimes hide in
irrigation tunnels to avoid detectionHe lived in isolation and eventually invented his own languageHe died on 23 April 2013 and was buried
without a coffin in a featureless grave
