Taliban Founder Mullah Omar’s ‘getaway car’ excavated

AFGHANISTAN: The car used by Taliban Founder Mullah Omar to escape being targeted by US Forces after the 9/11 attacks has been excavated in eastern Afghanistan, where it lay buried for more than two decades, officials said.

The white Toyota Corolla was buried in a village garden in Zabul Province by former Taliban official Abdul Jabbar Omari, who ordered it to be dug up this week.

“It is still in good condition, only its front is a bit damaged,” Rahmatullah Hammad, the Director of Information and Culture of Zabul province said.

“This vehicle was buried by the Mujahideen as a memorial to Omar in 2001 to avoid it being lost,” he said.

Taliban media officials published pictures of the car being dug from its vehicular grave by men using hand shovels.

The Taliban want the car to be displayed in the capital’s national museum as a “great historical monument”, Hammad added.

The Taliban were formed in Kandahar by Mullah Omar, who led the hardline Islamist movement to power in 1996 after a bloody civil war, and imposed a strict interpretation of Islamic law on the country. Taliban officials said this week that Mullah Omar made his getaway from Kandahar in the Toyota Corolla. He died in hiding in 2013, although officials kept his death secret for several years. – NDTV