A senior Afghan Taliban member has allegedly died in Pakistan after an illness, militant sources said Tuesday. Mullah Muhammad Hassan Rahmani, who was in his mid-fifties and a member of the group's Leadership Council, died of cancer on Monday night in a hospital in the Quetta, two senior Taliban sources told AFP. Rahmani rose to prominence as a jihadist during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and lost a leg during the conflict, according to a statement on the Taliban's website which confirmed his death but did not say where it happened.
He was later appointed governor of Kandahar province, the Taliban's heartland, when the militants ruled the country from 1996 to 2001. A senior Taliban leader told AFP: "He died in Quetta late Monday night and today his body was moved to Afghanistan. The burial will probably take place in Kandahar." The source added: "He was a prominent figure in the Taliban leadership and there were some rumours he might soon announce his own splinter group."
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