Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Mansoor, was shot and wounded during a meeting of militant leaders in south-western Pakistan, a Taliban source said on Thursday.
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Afghan officials said Mansoor was injured during a meeting of the Afghan Taliban in Kuchlak area, some 25 km east of Quetta, the Balochistan provincial capital, on Wednesday.
Faizy says there was an argument, followed by shooting that wounded Mansoor and killed six Taliban figures, including Sarhadi.
However, sources close to Mr. Sarhadi told The World Weekly an exchange of fire had taken place at the meeting and people were wounded.
A Taliban spokesman denied that Mansour was injured at all, saying the reports are “absolutely baseless”, but the group typically does not speak publicly on the status of its prominent members. If President Ghani is so confident that the Taliban are merely fragmented powerless groups of militants post- Mullah Omar, then surely he should be successful in bringing them to the negotiating table and brokering a long lasting solution for peace.
“Simply posting denials on their website won’t be considered credible enough, especially after Mullah Omar’s death was concealed for years”.
Sarhadi may have been trying to mediate a dispute between Mansour and other Taliban leaders when the two sides began shooting at each other, Faizi said.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, pictured December 2, 2015, voiced a renewed willingness to revive the …
But a leadership tussle immediately ensued, with some Taliban commanders refusing to recognize Mansur.
“The reports are still sketchy, but the sheer volume of rumours suggesting that something has happened to Mansour will pressure the Taliban to offer proof that he’s alive”, the official told the AFP news agency. Omar had actually died two years earlier. Tension heightened over Kabul’s accusations that Islamabad has historically aided the Taliban, most recently in the northern city of Kunduz, briefly captured by the militants in September as part of a nationwide surge in attacks.
But the dialogue process stalled soon after Omar’s death was announced.
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Afghan officials on Wednesday confirmed reports of the death of his deputy, Mullah Dadullah, a prominent commander and a major rival to Mansour. The clash comes four months after he was appointed to replace Omar as the head of the deeply divided group.
