Multiple reports citing intelligence and insurgent sources had stated that Mansour was wounded or killed on Tuesday in a firefight at an insurgent gathering in Kuchlak.
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His declare to the management has been rejected by some factions within the Taliban who’ve accused him of overlaying up Mullah Omar’s demise and seizing energy with out correct authority.
“I think it s a faked audio”.
“We need more proof”, he concluded.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a brief message that they would discredit such reports.
“I have recorded this message to let everyone know that I am alive”, the man purported to be Mansour says in a relaxed drawl.
“There is no truth in the rumours that I was either injured or killed in the infighting at Pakistan’s Kuchlak area. This is propaganda of the enemy”, the person talking on the message stated.
Mansoor also referred to a battle between Afghan forces and the Taliban in Wardak province on Friday, which killed a number of civilians. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif voiced a willingness to revive stalled peace talks when the two met briefly on the sidelines of a climate-change conference in Paris on December 1.Mansour was said to in a private hospital for treatment after being hit four times by bullets from an AK-47 assault rifle.
It was not potential to confirm whether or not the voice was actually that of Mansour though some senior Taliban members stated it appeared to be his. “I am among my colleagues”, Mansoor said, adding that he had not wanted to release the audio recording but was convinced to do so by his aides.
“Why did they wait nearly five days to do that?”
The Taliban earlier rejected the claims and insisted that no incident of firing took place.
Omar died in 2013 but his death was not confirmed until late July.
Mansour was declared Taliban leader on July 31, but splits immediately emerged in the group, with some top leaders refusing to pledge their allegiance to the new leader saying the process to select him was rushed and biased.
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.
An Afghan man reads a local newspaper with photos of the new leader of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015.
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A government spokesman today went further, claiming Mansour did not survive the clash, which threatens to derail a fresh regional push to jump-start Taliban peace talks.
