A statement attributed to outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesperson Muhammad Khurasani has rejected as fake a viral document that purported to show the group supporting Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and the provincial PTI government.
The disputed document had circulated on social media and was presented by some accounts as evidence that TTP had openly backed Afridi and the PTI administration. A denial circulated on September 30 describes that document as fabricated.
Margalla News did not find reliable independent authentication of either the original viral document or the purported denial from a directly verifiable TTP source in a fresh search. War Monitor also states that it has not independently authenticated the disputed document.
The story is therefore being treated as a disputed-document report. The reportable development is that a denial attributed to TTP labels the viral support statement fake; this does not establish that PTI or Chief Minister Sohail Afridi has any verified political relationship with or support from TTP.
Afridi is the serving chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and a prominent PTI leader. His government has publicly differed with the federal government over counterterrorism policy, but those political disagreements do not by themselves establish support from any armed group.