The Afghan vice presidential spokesman Faizi said Mansur had attended a meeting of Taliban commanders on December 1 in the Kachlakh area of Quetta, Pakistan.
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Two official Taliban spokesmen denied the assertions, with one of them, Zabiullah Mujahed, calling them “a total lie”.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani voiced a willingness to revive stalled peace talks with the Taliban, but warned that Pakistan must earn Kabul’s trust if Islamabad wishes to play the role of mediator.
News of his death disrupted fledgling peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
Mansour was appointed Taliban leader on July 31 soon after the insurgents confirmed the death of Omar, who led the Islamist movement for some two decades.
If Mansour is now dead or seriously wounded, that would be yet another blow to the peace process.
Sardari is a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who was freed in 2012.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujaheed, however, has dismissed Fayzi’s assertions as baseless.
Faizy says there was an argument, followed by shooting that wounded Mansoor and killed six Taliban figures, including Sarhadi.
“Akhtar Mansour is among the injured but the extent of his injuries is not clear”, he said, a claim that was corroborated by another insurgent source.
He said Pakistan believes that the U.S. and China, which were associated with Murree reconciliation process, are vital partners in this process. According to that same commander, Mansour was rushed to a private hospital with four bullet wounds from an AK-47.
The statement continues bu stating that the “enemy merely wants to draw attention away from their failures with such fabricated rumors”.
Several Pakistani intelligence officials also denied that Mansour was shot.
The Agence France-Presse news agency, however, quoted another anonymous Pakistani intelligence official as saying Mansour was “very seriously injured” in the incident.
The rifts increase the risk of internecine clashes within the Taliban, which has lately seen a new resurgence under Mansour even as it confronts the rise of the rival Islamic State group in Afghanistan.
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Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who has taken a lead in pushing the issue, wrote a letter Monday to President Obama calling on him to quickly appoint an interagency coordinator for hostage recovery, as required in the annual defense policy bill he signed into law last week, to replace the Federal Bureau of Investigation as the lead in the effort.
