According to the Dawn, the 16-minute audio recording says that “rumours” of Mansour’s death had been planted deliberately to weaken the Taliban.
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“I want to assure that there had been no incident of gunfight”, Mansour said speaking in Pashto. This incident never happened and it is not true. “The enemy has launched the propaganda to claim that the Taliban differences have led to infighting”, Mansoor said in the audio message circulated Saturday.
The audio message was released two days after Sultan Faizy, the spokesman for Afghanistan’s First Vice President Abdul Rasheed Dostum, claimed that Mansoor was wounded in a firefight that broke out at a gathering of Taliban figures in Pakistan.
A US-Afghan military operation backed by helicopter gunships freed more than 40 soldiers and police held captive in a Taliban prison in southern Afghanistan, officials said Friday, in a major raid against the insurgent group.
Skepticism over Taliban denials was fuelled in recent years by the secrecy which surrounded the death of Mansour’s predecessor, Mullah Mohammad Omar.
“I have recorded my message to let everyone know that I am alive”.
Several sources in the Taliban have said that Mansour, whose claim to the leadership is rejected by a rival faction, was seriously wounded and possibly killed in a shootout at the house of another Taliban leader near Quetta in Pakistan on Tuesday. “I haven’t seen Kuchlagh in years”. “If they’d done it earlier it might have been more effective”, he said. He died in 2013 however this was not confirmed till two years later.
The Taliban has been struggling to contain divisions ever since Mansour, the movement’s longtime number two, was named leader after Mullah Omar’s death was confirmed in July.
A breakaway faction of the Taliban led by Mullah Mohamed Rasool was formed last month, in the first formal division in the once-unified group.
But splits immediately emerged in the group, with some top leaders refusing to pledge allegiance to Mansour, saying the process to select him was rushed and even biased.
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The shootout also threatens to derail a renewed regional push to jump-start peace talks with the Taliban.
