“I have talked to the refugees in Kuchlak area who even denied any incident of firing”, the Taliban spokesman said.
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An Afghan intelligence source confirmed his account, and other sources also said that Mansour had been injured.
It is reported that the Taliban dissidents last month launched another group under the leadership of Muhammad Rasool, a member of the Taliban leadership council.
Mansour, whose authority is disputed by rival factions in the Islamist movement, was wounded when fighting broke out over strategic issues in the house of a senior Taliban leader called Mullah Abdullah Sarhadi, two senior Taliban members said.
Sarhadi is a Taliban figure with symbolic importance after spending years in USA detention in Guantanamo Bay, reports the BBC’s Dawood Azami. Mansour was being treated in a private hospital after being hit four times by bullets from an AK-47 assault rifle, the Taliban commander said.
What prompted the shooting in Quetta is unclear.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid dismissed the reports as “a rumour which is completely baseless”.
“Akthar Mohammad Mansour is totally fine and nothing has happened to him”.
“Mansour was seriously injured”.
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But the Islamist movement has split into openly warring factions since Mullah Omar died. Mansoor’s leadership was challenged among some followers, and a breakaway Taliban faction emerged, followed by clashes between the two groups.
