Kabul official: Taliban leader wounded in Pakistan shooting

According to Fayzi, a quarrel broke out between the two men, which, the spokesman claimed, quickly escalated into an armed confrontation.

An official Taliban spokesman, however, denied that the incident took place.

“The Taliban weren’t able to re-unify themselves as before following the death of Mullah Omar”, said Haroun Mir, a Kabul-based political analyst.

“There is no such thing as the Taliban after the death of Mullah Omar”, Ghani said.

In this archival picture, Taliban militants stand on a hillside at Maydan Shahr District of Wardak Province, west of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Meanwhile, the Taliban’s official website carried a statement late on Wednesday night titled, ‘Rumour about leader of Islamic Emirate being wounded is absolutely baseless’.

Talking to reporters, she said that for the second round of peace talks, Afghan government should formally request Pakistan.

Sarhadi is a Taliban figure with symbolic importance after spending years in USA detention in Guantanamo Bay, reports the BBC’s Dawood Azami.

But despite the divisions, there has been no let up in insurgent attacks – and the Taliban has seen a new resurgence under Mansour.

There have also been growing differences among Taliban elements over peace talks with the Afghan government, with some vowing to fight for power instead of taking part in negotiations.

But Mansoor’s leadership was disputed by some within the militant group who later rallied behind another longtime friend of Mullah Omar.

The firefight exposes deepening divisions within the fractious militant movement, which saw its first formal split last month after a breakaway faction surfaced.

Mansur was declared the new Taliban leader in July, days after the Afghan government confirmed that Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had died in the Pakistani port city of Karachi two years earlier.

The splinter group denies Dadullah’s death but officials insist he was killed last month in a clash with Mansour loyalists.

Since August Mullah Mansour has overseen a series of battlefield victories, including briefly capturing the northern Afghan city of Kunduz – a huge setback for Western-backed Afghan forces.