Taliban’s spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, who appeared before the media for the first time in a decade at a press conference after the insurgent group seized Kabul last month, said that he lived in the Afghan capital right under the nose of his adversaries who considered him a 'ghost-like' figure during the war.
Mujahid, who operated in the shadows for years, also admitted that he studied at the Haqqania seminary in Nowshera in northwest Pakistan, which has also been dubbed the Taliban University or the 'University of Jihad' internationally.
Mocking the US, Mujahid told The Express Tribune newspaper in an interview that the US and Afghan National Forces used to think "I did not exist".
Claiming that the US and Afghan force launched a number of missions and raids to catch him, Mujahid said he escaped every single time. "This made them seriously considered that ‘Zabiullah’ was a made up figure, not a real man who exists," the 43-year-old spokesman said.
Mujahid said he became the spokesman of the Taliban following the arrest of his predecessor. He also said that he had never seen the Taliban founder Mullah Umar.