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Afghan agents get in touch with Mullah Omar

July 09, 2004 15:24 IST

Afghan intelligence agencies were able to contact Taliban leader Mullah Omar for a short while over a satellite phone before he got suspicious and disconnected the call, The Telegraph reported on Friday.

The agencies were able to contact Omar after his number was found on the satellite phone of a top Taliban commander Mullah Mujahed, who was captured.

Mujahed was asked to call up Omar. The newspaper reported that the brief conversation ended abruptly when Omar appeared to become suspicious and disconnected the call.

Kandahar intelligence chief Abdullah Laghmanai said, "He realised it was not his man [and] cut off the phone." He has ignored follow-up attempts to contact him.

Omar had recently told an interviewer that Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants maintain communication by 'traditional' means.

Agencies