The Taliban have denied that during a ll|one amongst|one in every of”> one among their top leaders has been killed in a shootout with rivals, following rumours about internal splits within the movement nearly a month after its lightning victory over the Western-backed government in Kabul.
Sulail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesman, said Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, former head of the Taliban political office who was named deputy prime minister last week, issued a voice message rejecting claims he had been killed or injured during a clash.
“He says it’s lies and totally baseless,” Shaheen said during a message on Twitter.
The Taliban also released video footage purportedly showing Baradar at meetings within the southern city of Kandahar. Reuters couldn’t immediately verify the footage.
The denials follow days of rumours that supporters of Baradar had clashed with those of Sirajuddin Haqqani, head of the Haqqani network that’s based near the border with Pakistan and was blamed for a few of the worst suicide attacks of the war.
The rumours follow speculation over possible rivalries between military commanders like Haqqani and leaders from the political office in Doha like Baradar, who led diplomatic efforts to succeed in a settlement with the us .
The Taliban have repeatedly denied the speculation over internal divisions.
Baradar, once seen because the likely head of a Taliban government, had not been seen publicly for a few time and wasn’t a part of the ministerial delegation which met Qatari secretary of state Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani in Kabul on Sunday.
The movement’s supreme leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, has also not been seen publicly since the Taliban seized Kabul on Aug. 15, although he issued a public statement when the new government was formed last week.
Speculation over Taliban leaders has been fed by the circumstances surrounding the death of the movement’s founder, Mullah Omar , which was only made public in 2015 two years after it happened, setting off bitter recriminations among the leadership.