**The head of the Taliban in Pakistan’s Swat valley is “alive and healthy”, a local Taliban spokesman has said, denying reports he was close to death.**Maulana Fazlullah was reported by the military to have been critically wounded during the army’s recent offensive in the Swat valley.
But a Taliban spokesman told the BBC this was not the case and played a recorded message by Maulana Fazlullah.
It is not clear when the message was recorded.