Alwaght- Pakistan's interior minister casts doubt on US claims of killing Taliban leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, saying the recovered body was charred beyond recognition.
"The government of Pakistan cannot announce this without a scientific and legal basis," Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told reporters, as quoted by Reuters.
While previous reports claimed that Mansour was killed last week, he went on to say that DNA tests will reveal the identity of the man killed in the drone strike.
Abdullah Abdullah, government chief executive of Afghanistan previously said that the Taliban leader was killed after his car was attacked in the town of Dalbandin, Pakistan.
Afghan intelligence also previously confirmed the death of the chief.
“Akhtar Mansoor, Taliban leader is killed yesterday in an air strike in Dalbandin, Balouchistan [province], Pakistan,” the Afghan National Directorate of Security wrote on Twitter.
On Monday, US President Barack Obama confirmed the American military had killed the Taliban leader, proclaiming his death "an important milestone."
Mansour took over the Taliban’s leadership position in July 2015, replacing its founder and spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, who died in 2013. Notably, the Taliban only confirmed Omar's death in 2015.
Mansour first joined the Taliban in 1995. Previous reports said he was killed in a battle last year, though those were denied by the Afghan government.
