Taliban rejects Islamic Scholars conferences as a 'US process'

The Taliban said in a statement on Tuesday the US first gathered religious scholars for a conference in Indonesia in May, and have since organised similar conferences in Kabul, Islamabad, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

No date has been set for a conference in Saudi Arabia.

The Taliban consider the conferences to be anti-Islamic and led by the US, the group said in the statement. It says the US is using them to seek justification for its "military occupation" of Afghanistan.

"The Islamic Emirate urges religious scholars to reject these conferences which are a scheme of the invaders," it said.

This comes after Pakistan Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah was killed in an airstrike earlier this month, after a joint US-Afghan operation targeting the militant's hideout in the northeast of the country.

"I confirm that Mullah Fazlullah, leader of the Pakistani Taliban, has been killed in an joint air operation in the border area of Marawera district of Kunar province," Mohammed Radmanish, a spokesperson for Afghan defence ministry, said.

Taliban sources at the time announced that they also believe the Pakistani militant chief has been killed.

Fazlullah was one of the US and Afghanistan's most wanted militants, with a $5 million reward for information on him.

He is thought to be behind the 2014 Pakistan school massacre, which left 132 children dead, as well as the shooting of schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai.