The Taliban has been forced to deny that deputy leader Mullah Baradar is dead after wild rumours emerged that he was killed during a gunfight with his political rivals. The Taliban has been forced to deny wild rumours that deputy leader Mullah Baradar was shot dead during a confrontation in Kabul last week (pictured, Taliban guards in Kabul)Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem released the audio recording on Monday. 'Reports about Mullah Baradar Akhund being injured or killed are baseless and are not true, I categorically refute them,' he said. Baradar is one of the Taliban's founding members and served as deputy to its first supreme leader Mullah Omar, who died in 2013 from tuberculosis. After Omar's death, Baradar took over as leader of the political wing of the Taliban and is one of the group's most-senior figures.

Source: The Nation September 13, 2021 13:06 UTC