Taleban chief is mentally unstable: Doctor
Afghanistan's ruling Taleban chief, Mullah Mohammed Omar, is mentally unstable and suffers fits, a leading British daily said on Sunday.
"He locks himself away for two or three days at a time and the official line is that he is having visions, but in fact he is suffering from brain seizures," the doctor who attends Omar was quoted by The Sunday Telegraph as saying.
This mental instability is the real reason why Omar -- the 43-year-old cleric -- is so reclusive, the daily said, without disclosing the identity of the doctor who feared that he would be killed.
Doctors believe that Omar's mood swings may be the result of a shrapnel lodged in his brain when he lost an eye in 1989 during a Russian rocket attack on his mosque.
The daily said apart from the fits, the Taleban leader also suffers from serious depression, alternating with bouts of childlike behaviour where he sits in the driving seat of one of his cars, turning the steering wheel while making the noise of an engine.
Only one photograph exists of Omar, the newspaper reported, adding that he is rarely seen outside the bomb-proof house built for him in Kandahar by Osama bin Laden, and most Afghans have no idea what he looks like.
Except Pakistan, Omar has never travelled abroad. In fact, he has seen little of his country, only visiting Kabul twice.
When he does venture out, it is in a convoy of Japanese off-road vehicles with darkened windows and gun-totting bodyguards, the newspaper said.
rediff.com |
