Taliban Leader Denies He Is Dead In Recording

“Brothers, this news is baseless, there is no doubt, this is the propaganda from the enemy”.

Scepticism over the Taliban denials has been fuelled by the secrecy which surrounded the demise of the motion’s founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar.

Numerous leaders believe the audio message released to prove Mullah Akhtar Mansour is alive is fake.

Afghan officials and local media said on Wednesday that at least four people were killed and a number of others sustained injuries in a fierce gunfight that occurred during a Taliban’s gathering in the Pakistani town, saying that Mansoor was among the wounded.

“There is no truth to the rumours that I was either injured or killed in infighting at Pakistan’s Kuchlak area”, the Taliban chief said.

Afghan officials claimed last week that the Taliban leader had been shot when a meeting of senior commanders from the Islamist movement escalated into a firefight, with several men killed. Mullah Omar died in 2013 but his death was only confirmed in July. Speculation about Mansour’s fate reached a fever pitch after unconfirmed media reports on Friday claimed that he had died, even as the group vowed to release an audio message from the leader. It wasn’t instantly potential to authenticate the message’s authenticity, though the Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, had hours earlier stated the assertion can be let go soon.

Mawlawi Hanifi, a commander based in southern Helmand province, said: “I listened to the clip and it looks fake”.

Mansoor took over as the head of the Afghan Taliban in July after the death of his predecessor Mullah Omar, who led the movement for nearly 20 years but had not been seen in public since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

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.

Considering Omar’s death was kept a secret for two years, questions are now being raised about the authenticity of Mansour’s tape.

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.

A breakaway faction of the Taliban led by Mullah Mohamed Rasool was formed in November, in the first formal division in the once-unified group.