KABUL: Afghan Taliban rejected a report claiming the militant group’s chief had been killed in a blast in Quetta.
Hashte Sobh, an Afghan daily, citing sources, reported on Sunday the explosion had occurred in a safe house several months ago, killing Haibatullah Akhundzada, the group’s intelligence head Matitullah and finance chief Hafiz Abdul Majid.
“This report is utterly fake and far from reality,” Arab News reported, citing Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban.
“We reject this report […] the enemy is under pressure and is trying to create worry through spreading such rumors,” he said.
“Neither our leaders are in Pakistan nor such incidents can be kept hidden.”
Haibatullah, an Islamic legal scholar and one of Mullah Akhtar Mansour’s deputies, was appointed leader of the Afghan Taliban in May 2016 after the latter’s death in a US drone strike.
Akhundzada, believed to be around 65 years of age and a member of the powerful Noorzai tribe, was a close aide to Omar and is from Kandahar, in the south of Afghanistan and the heartland of the Taliban.
In June, a report suggesting Haibatullah’s death from the coronavirus had emerged but was refuted by Taliban officials.
Foreign Policy, citing unnamed Taliban officials, had reported that the militant contracted Covid-19 and possibly died while receiving treatment abroad.
The Taliban movement banned human images for breaching their strict interpretation of Islam when they governed Afghanistan.
Under their rule, women could only appear in public under a heavy veil and accompanied by a male relative, and they were denied a formal education. Public executions were staged and sports banned.
