PESHAWAR, Nov 2: A former Afghan deputy foreign minister and influential tribal leader, Hamid Karzai, escaped unhurt when his base in the Uruzgan province was overrun by the Taliban on Thursday.

The Taliban said that 25 of Karazi’s men had been captured and three of them would be executed.

Karazi’s younger brother, Ahmad Wali rejected the Taliban’s claim.

Karzai, 46, had sneaked into Afghanistan about two weeks ago to organize uprising against the Taliban among his Durrani-Populzai tribe, the largest and influential ethnic Pakhtoon tribe in Afghanistan. Durranis have been traditionally supporting former king Zahir Shah, also a Durrani.

The Taliban said they stormed the Karzai support camp for the former king in Dehrawad on Thursday and captured 25 of his men.

Taliban Consul-General in Peshawar, Maulvi Najibullah, told Dawn that three Karzai’s commanders, one of whom he identified as Abdul Qadir, would be executed in Kandahar on Saturday. He said that four American helicopters had tried to rescue Karzai but failed in the face of stiff fight put up by the Taliban.

He denied reports about any uprising in the Pakhtoon heartland and native province of Taliban supreme leader Mulla Muhammad Omar.

“What kind of an uprising would be in the mountains? Uprising happens in cities and town and not in mountains,” he remarked.

But Karzai’s brother said that the people had begun to rise up against the Taliban. He said that he had spoken to his brother at around 11am and found him well.

“He is fine,” Wali told Dawn. He denied Taliban’s claim of arrest and casualties on his brother’s side. “These are all lies. Nobody has been captured or killed.”

Wali did not know whether his brother wanted to return to Pakistan.

Earlier reports said that Karzai, who is a leader of the Populzai tribe, and his supporters had retreated to the mountains after the Taliban launched the operation against them in Dehrawad.

“He has no role to play,” the Taliban diplomat said of Karzai.