Pakistan Taliban sacks spokesman over ‘allegiance to IS’

The Pakistani Taliban has sacked the movement’s influential spokesman, according to a statement received by Reuters on Tuesday, in a sign of growing divisions within the deeply fractured group.

The move followed last week’s release of an audio message purporting to have been recorded by the spokesman, Shahidullah Shahid, saying he and a group of other commanders had defected to the Islamic State (IS).

The authenticity of that recording, posted online, could not be independently verified and Shahidullah’s mobile phone has been switched off ever since.

The Taliban leadership said he no longer worked for them and reiterated their support for the Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Omar.

The Pakistani Taliban have been deeply divided for years, with dozens of smaller groups jostling for influence, although the movement itself says its divisions are exaggerated by the Pakistani authorities to discredit the group.

There is little evidence of direct contacts between militants operating in Pakistan’s tribal areas and IS leaders, although IS’s radical rhetoric is likely to have captured the imagination of many fighters.

There are many fundamental differences between the Taliban and IS, and al-Qaeda-linked commanders are believed to be wary of IS’s inroads into South and Central Asia.