KOHAT, Aug 29: The outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan has denied reports that one of its ‘commanders’, Tariq Afridi, has been killed by a close relative in Khyber Agency. Mohammad, a spokesman for the TTP’s Tariq Afridi group, told Dawn by telephone that the group would try to release an audio cassette of Tariq Afridi or, if possible, connect him to some TV channels via phone to prove that he was alive. He said there was no truth in media reports that Afridi had been killed by his brother-in-law, adding that he was alive and in good health. Afridi belongs to the Akhorwal tribe of Darra Adamkhel, a town in the frontier region of Kohat. Two other close members of the group also denied that Tariq Afridi had been killed by a man who defected from a group led by Mangal Bagh, chief of the banned Lashkar-i-Islam in Khyber Agency. Some sources said the man who had joined the Tariq Afridi group wanted to go back to his previous organisation. Mangal Bagh had asked him to kill Afridi if he wanted to join his group, they said. But spokesman Mohammad termed it ‘totally false’ and said no-one from the Mangal group had joined the TTP. There were widespread rumours last month that Afridi had been killed.