Taliban dismisses Kabul's claim that leader Mullah Mansoor was wounded in Pakistan

Kabul: A Kabul official said Wednesday that the new Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, has been wounded in a firefight that broke out at a gathering of several Taliban figures in neighboring Pakistan the previous night. [caption id=“attachment_2432590” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] The Taliban promptly denied the claim, dismissing it as propaganda by the Afghan government. Sultan Faizy, spokesman for Afghan First Vice-President Abdul Rashid Dostum, said the shooting erupted on Tuesday night when Mansoor visited Mullah Abdullah Sarhadi in his house in the city of Quetta. Faizy says there was an argument, followed by shooting that wounded Mansoor and killed six Taliban figures, including Sarhadi. Faizy also says there are reports Mansoor was taken to a hospital but that his condition is unknown. Faizy did not provide details or offer evidence to substantiate his statement. Pakistani officials said they are not aware of any such shooting incident. Mullah Ghafar, a Taliban commander who goes by one name, told AP that “nothing like this happened” and that the claim was clearly “propaganda” on Kabul’s part. 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’. The statement reads: “Some media outlets published reports today from the mouths of Kabul intelligence circles that the leader of Islamic Emirate (Mullah Akhtar Mansoor) was attacked and wounded in Kuchlak region of Quetta city yesterday. We categorically reject this fabricated claim of the enemy intelligence apparatus… (Mansoor) has no presence in the stated area and neither has a security incident occurred there. The enemy falsely claimed that the incident took place in the home of a commander named Mullah Abdullah Sarhadi, despite the fact that his home is not even based in the Kuchlak region.” The statement continues bu stating that the ’enemy merely wants to draw attention away from their failures with such fabricated rumors’. Mansoor took control of the Afghan Taliban in August, after the announcement of the death of the group’s founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar. Mansoor’s leadership was challenged among some followers, and a breakaway Taliban faction emerged, followed by clashes between the two groups. Mansoor has claimed widespread backing among Taliban leaders based in Pakistan and on the battlefield, and took credit for the Taliban’s brief capture of the northern city of Kunduz in September. With inputs from AP