KABUL - Banning all mourning ceremonies for deceased Taliban leader Mullah Omar, the spy agency on Monday warned that any gatherings condoling his death would be a “legitimate target” for Afghan forces.

The announcement comes hours after Afghan forces targeted a funeral ceremony in absentia for Omar in the Qarah Bagh district of southern Ghazni province, five kilometers from Ghazni City, the provincial capital.

“Mullah Omar was the biggest cause of war and backwardness in the modern history of Afghanistan,” the National Directorate of Security (NDS) said in a statement.

It said Mullah Omar was responsible for the killing of thousands of Afghans and any commemoration or mourning ceremonies for him were an insult to the thousands of martyrs of the nation.

It said all security and defence forces had been directed that such rallies were “a legitimate military target.” The statement urged local residents not to participate in such sessions.

The statement claimed Mullah Omar had been mysteriously killed in April 2013 in a hospital in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi.

Also on Monday, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Seddiqi told a press conference that a handful of individuals who had the blood of Afghans on their hands took part in memorial ceremonies for Mullah Omar.

Without going into details, he said the people knew the individuals who participated in the commemoration sessions.

Two days ago, the High Peace Council acting head Abdul Hakim Mujahid and some Harkat-i-Inqilabi Islami Party members attended a memorial service for Mullah Omar in Kabul. (Pajhwok)