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Pakistani Taliban Fires Spokesman For Controversial Remarks


Pakistan's Taliban has fired its spokesman for comments that could have offended the group's Afghan counterpart.

The news broke on July 10 after a pamphlet was distributed in the remote North Waziristan tribal district on July 9.

The pamphlet said that Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan was dismissed last month after he said that an Afghan Taliban contact office in Qatar would not affect them.

Sheikh Maqbool Orakzai, a militant commander considered close to the Afghan Taliban, has been appointed as the new TTP spokesman.

The TTP is an umbrella organization of varies extremist factions that united in 2007.

It has been facing internal friction after its deputy chief, Wali-ur Rehman Mehsud, was killed in a drone strike in May.

Based on reporting dpa and RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal

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