Kabul: Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday denied meeting a purported top Taliban negotiator as claimed by The New York Times.
The US newspaper said a man claiming to be Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Mansour was in fact an imposter. The Washington Post quoted Afghan officials as saying that the man was a lowly shopkeeper from the Pakistani city of Quetta.
NATO and Afghan officials told the Times they met the fake Taliban leader three times and that he was flown to Kabul on a NATO aircraft and ushered into the presidential palace to meet Karzai.
But the president denied the meeting.
"We have not met with any one named Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour. Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour has not come to Afghanistan," Karzai told reporters at a news conference in Kabul.
He told reporters not to accept "propaganda" from the foreign media.
"Do not accept foreign media reports about meetings with Taliban leaders. Most of these reports are propaganda and lies," he said.
Karzai, who has repeatedly called on the Taliban to renounce violence and negotiate a peaceful end to nine years of war in Afghanistan, acknowledged only that his government had numerous "indirect" contacts with the Taliban.
The hardline group's reclusive, one-eyed leader Mullah Omar last week dismissed reports of Taliban involvement in peace talks to bring an end to the bitter, nine-year conflict as "misleading rumours."
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