The Afghan Taliban on Saturday released an audio statement from Mullah Akhtar Mansoor as pressure mounted on the group to offer proof that their chief was still alive after reportedly being critically wounded in a gunfight earlier this week.
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Durin the 16-minute message, the man purported to be Mansur says the reports about his condition were spread intentionally to create divisions within the Taliban.
“This is completely unfounded and let me tell you, and believe me, that I have not visited the Kuchlak area of Quetta for years”, Mansour said in the voice message. This incident by no means occurred and it isn’t true.
“Brothers, this news is baseless, there is no doubt, this is the propaganda from the enemy”. “I was not in Kuchlak”, he said.
According to one senior Taliban commander, who said that Mansour had died of his wounds on Thursday, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, one of Mansour’s two deputies, is poised to take over the leadership.
A senior Pakistani intelligence official said that Mansour had been “very seriously injured” in what he described as a “heavy exchange of fire” at a gathering of militant commanders near the Pakistani city of Quetta.
The audio message was released two days after Sultan Faizy, a spokesman for the first vice president of Afghanistan, said Mansour had died of injuries he sustained in a scuffle in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.
Talking to The Express Tribune, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the audio recording had “exposed the ulterior motives of the enemy”.
“We do not have any reports about the incident and the Afghan Taliban spokesman has also denied the reports”, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said during media briefing.
Taliban members too were confused and concerned about the growing turmoil in their ranks following the death of their supreme leader Mulla Mohammad Omar.
In the audio message Mansour also announced that he had no fight with any of the opponents in insurgent group.
“Simply posting denials… won’t be considered credible enough, especially after Omar’s death was concealed for years”.
However his authority has been rejected by some factions in the Taliban who have accused him of covering up Mullah Omar’s death and seizing power without proper authority.
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An official told media in Kabul on Wednesday that the firing started in a meeting at the residence of a Taliban leader, Abdullah Sarhadi.
