Slain Taliban leader was not issued Pakistan passport: Minister

Islamabad [Pakistan], Nov.10 (ANI): Pakistan Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal has said slain Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was not issued a Pakistani passport or a National Identity Card (NIC).

Iqbal, in his written reply to the Pak Senate, has clarified that media reports suggesting that Mansoor was in possession of a Pakistan passport and an NIC were incorrect. The NIC, he added, was in the name of a man named Muhammad Wali, reports the Dawn.

The minister has further added that a departmental inquiry has been ordered against National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) officials involved in the issuance of fake cards, and it has been completed.

According to the reports, at least three officials from National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) had been handed a "major punishment" - removal from service.

Senator Farhatullah Babar expressed his dissatisfaction over the action as it had been taken against lower-level NADRA employees.

Babar said, "This is not the solution to the problem."

He demanded a probe into who gave the orders for the card to be issued, if the government was not already doing so.

Mullah Mansoor was killed in an airstrike on 21st May last year.

He was on his way back from a visit to Iran when he was targeted by the US forces in Afghanistan with an aerial strike, the report said. (ANI)