Afghan officials say they are trying to determine whether Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansur is still alive after he was reportedly seriously wounded in a firefight after a dispute with fellow commanders in Pakistan.
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It remains unclear whether Mansour survived the gunfight, which threatens to derail a renewed regional push to jump-start peace talks with the Taliban.
The incident came as the group has been divided into two factions after Mansour succeeded former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar as the hardliner group’s leader after Omar was confirmed dead in late July.
Sultan Faizi, a spokesman for Afghan Vice President Abdurrashid Dostum, said Mansour was shot Tuesday night while meeting Taliban commander Abdullah Sarhadi. While Afghanistan’s government is attempting to establish that Mansour is dead after reports emerged on Wednesday that he was severely injured in a shooting at a meeting of the group’s senior commanders, a Taliban spokesman has denied that Mansour was injured at all, saying the reports are “absolutely baseless”.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry announced this week that Ghani and Sharif were expected to meet, along with representatives of the United States and China, to try to reach a consensus over whether peace talks between the Taliban and Ghani’s government can be restarted.
After Mullah Omar’s eldest son Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob confirmed the death of his father, Mansour was elected the chief.
If confirmed, his death could intensify the power struggle within the fractious group and increase the risk of internecine clashes. Sarhadi had been detained in the Guantanamo Bay detention center but was released in 2012.
“Sarhadi and a group of other Taliban were killed”, Faizi said.
It was unclear what the argument was about.
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“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”, a Western official in Kabul told AFP. “Simply posting denials… won’t be considered credible enough, especially after Omar’s death was concealed for years”. We categorically reject this fabricated claim of the enemy intelligence apparatus…
