The Afghan Taliban have released an audio message purportedly from their leader dismissing claims that he was killed in a gunfight during a gathering of several Taliban figures in Pakistan.
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Local officials said army mortar bombs fell near a mosque, killing eight civilians and wounding two others, while the Taliban said 10 people gathered around a fire in front of the mosque were killed and eight wounded in the attack. This incident by no means occurred and it isn’t true. “We will release it soon, which will expose the ulterior motives of the enemy”, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a brief message in Pashto and Dari languages sent to media.
Some officials in Kabul claimed later that the Afghan Taliban chief had been mortally wounded during the incident Tuesday and later died of the injuries he suffered in Kuchlak, a small town near Quetta, capital of Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province.
The Taliban quickly provided audio recording of Abdullah Sarhadi, the Taliban shadow governor of Wardak province, in which he denied that he owned a house near Quetta or that he or Mulla Akhtar Mansour were wounded or killed in any shootout.
“The Taliban is suffering from a credibility crisis after they admitted to hiding Omar’s death for years”, Kabul-based military analyst Jawed Kohistani said.
But doubts continued to linger among the group s senior ranks, who are distrustful of their leadership following a two-year cover-up, from 2013-2015, of the death of the Taliban s founder and first leader Mullah Omar.
“There is no truth in the rumours that I was either injured or killed in the infighting at Pakistan’s Kuchlak area”.
Earlier Afghan officials claimed the death of Mullah Akhtar Mansour, saying that he was injured in a fight followed by an argument with a commander.
“We will do our assessment”, Sultan Faizi, an Afghan government spokesman, who is not sure if the voice in the audio is that of Mansour’s, said in a tweet.
Many were also unhappy that Omar’s death had been kept secret for two years – during which time annual Eid statements were issued in his name.
Speculation about Mansour’s death has also threatened to derail a renewed regional push to jump-start peace talks with the Taliban.
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Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, Taliban militants’ new leader, is seen in this undated handout photograph by the Taliban.
