( AP )A key Taliban commander in southern Afghanistan has been dismissed for disobeying the militant group's rules, a Taliban spokesman said Saturday.
Mansoor Dadullah was "disobeying orders" and conducting activities "against the Taliban's rules and regulations," said Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid.
"For this reason Mullah Mansoor Dadullah is no longer in the Taliban and no longer a Taliban commander," Mujahid said in a statement he attributed to Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
But Dadullah's spokesman said Sunday that Dadullah refused to accept the dismissal order, which he called a conspiracy.
"Mullah Omar is the Taliban supreme commander. We will always obey his orders. But this message, this order, is not from Mullah Omar," Muhibullah Mahajir told The Associated Press.
Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, reiterated on Sunday that the order came from Omar and said he would soon provide an audio clip with Omar ordering Dadullah out of the militia.
Dadullah rose in the militia's ranks as a key commander in southern Afghanistan after his brother, Mullah Dadullah, was killed during a military operation last May in Helmand province. Mullah Dadullah was the highest-ranking Taliban commander killed since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
Mahajir said that Mansoor Dadullah had interrogated some "spies" and found that some Taliban commanders were involved in Mullah Dadullah's death.
"That's why some of these commanders who were involved in the killing of Mullah Dadullah have made a conspiracy against us," said Mahajir, a spokesman who has contacted the AP in the past.