Taliban chief likely dead: Pak media

Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour has reportedly died and he Taliban has appointed Moulavi Haibatullah Akhunzada as the new caretaker chief, Xinhua quoted Pakistani broadcaster Channel 24 as saying on Friday.


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.

Akhunzada, who was the deputy chief of Taliban and a member of the supreme council, has reportedly been appointed as the new caretaker chief of the Taliban.

A source in Afghanistan also showed an alleged picture of Mansour depicting that he is dead, but it was not confirmed.

Earlier on Friday , an Afghan Taliban spokesman rejected reports of Mansour's death, saying they were "baseless, untrue propaganda of the enemy and intelligence agencies trying to sow confusion among the people."

On Thursday, Pakistan's foreign ministry also denied reports that Mansour has been injured in gunfight in the country's southwestern Balochistan province.