About 400 Afghan police supported by village militias have been trying to fend off an attack by hundreds of insurgents in eastern Nuristan province for five days, provincial police spokesman Farooq Khan said. “This morning we have unconfirmed reports that Maulana Fazlullah was killed” in the overnight fighting, Khan said.

On Wednesday, the militants made a push to capture all of Barg-e-Matal district on the Pakistan border, sparking heavy fighting throughout the area.

A senior border police official also said he had credible reports that Maulana Fazlullah was killed Wednesday. Gen. Mohammad Zaman Mamozai, the commander for border police in eastern Afghanistan, said the information came from local residents where the fighting was taking place. “Maulvi Fazlullah was killed in a direct clash with Afghan border police ... last night,” he said.

Fazlullah, nicknamed the “Radio Mullah” for his hard-line anti-Western broadcasts on a militant radio station in northwestern Pakistan, was the Taleban commander in the Swat Valley until the Pakistan military routed the group from the area last year.

Others in the Afghan government were hesitant to confirm Mamozai's account. Nuristan police chief Mohammad Qasim said it was difficult to identify the bodies of those killed.  About 500 Pakistani attackers have laid siege to the area, officials said.

In Pakistan, Maulana Faqir Mohammed, the Taleban chief in the Bajur area, said that Fazlullah had gone to Nuristan with his fighters. “We are trying to contact him,” he said. “We believe that he is safe and he has not been killed.”