No evidence to prove Taliban chief dead: Ghani

Conflicting reports have deepened uncertainty surrounding the fate of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour, after the insurgent group repeatedly denied he had been wounded in a gunfight after a dispute with other senior leaders.

Channel 24, without identifying its sources, said Mansour succumbed to the injuries that he sustained on Wednesday in a gunfight following a harsh argument during a meeting of Afghan Taliban commanders near Pakistan’s southwestern city of Quetta.

Mr Ghani was speaking after the Taliban released an audio tape said to be from Mullah Mansour in which he calls reports of the firefight “baseless”.

“So my brothers, our biggest objection to the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) is their relations with Pakistan and their cooperation with ISI (Pakistani intelligence), which is the basis for their action”, the video message says.

The man also offered his condolences to the relatives of civilians killed in central Wardak province where a firefight erupted between government forces and the Taleban on Friday.

Rahimullah Yousufzai, a Pakistani analyst and long-time observer of the Taliban, said the voice sounded like Mansour’s. “I believe it is him”, he said.

An Afghan branch of ISIS could become an global threat within three to five years, he added. “The meeting was attended by our high officials, edited, and then sent on to the media”, one of them said.

The voice resembled that in previous recordings issued by Mansoor, who succeeded longtime Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar after his death was announced last summer.

The group released the 16-minute file late on Saturday following reports citing intelligence and militant sources claiming its chief had been killed in a fire fight on Tuesday.

Mansour was declared leader in July after the Taliban confirmed that Mullah Omar had died in 2013. They now say a shooting incident had taken place, but at an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, which borders the area of Pakistan in which Quetta is located.

He was believed to be a proponent of such talks, a stance which prompted rancor among hardline insurgents.