Afghanistan officials have claimed that the supporters of the new Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour killed the son of Mullah Omar as the latter sought to become the new leader following his father's death.
Afghanistan's first deputy speaker in the parliament Zahir Qadirhas said that Mullah Yakub, the oldest son of former Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar, was killed in Quetta in Pakistan by the supporters of the new Taliban chief. He was killed last week while attending a Taliban meeting, the official reportedly said.
"We were told about Mullah Omar's death two years back and now his son Mullah Yaqub who was 21 or 22 years old was trying to be appointed as his father's successor. But Mullah Mansour also tried to become leader of the Taliban, therefore it is said that he was killed some days back," the Afghan official told TOLOnews.
The news comes days after the confirmation of Mullah Omar's demise two years ago and reports about division within the Taliban.
Mullah Yaqub had reportedly protested the decision to make Mullah Akhtar Mansour the new Taliban chief.
"I am against the decision to select Mullah Akhtar Mansoor as leader," he had told The Associated Press.
The Afghan Taliban, however, has dismissed reports of Mullah Yakub's death.
"There is no truth in the claim. Yaqoob is alive and I am in contact with him," an Afghan Taliban official told The Express Tribune.
The Taliban also rejected claims that there was an attack on a Taliban convoy carrying Mullah Akhtar Mansour's deputy in Pakistan's Balochistan province.
There has reportedly been some turmoil within the Taliban following Mullah Omar's death over who should be made the next leader.
"Mansoor was elected by his own group, and we will not accept him as the supreme leader of Taliban," a Quetta unit member told The Telegraph.
Recently, Afghan officials announced that Mullah Omar had died in 2013 in a Karachi hospital, ending speculations over the reasons for the Taliban leader's absence.
