Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, has disappeared in the past five days, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security, Lutfullah Mashal, said Monday.

Mashal said he “hopes” Omar is dead but cannot confirm it.

“Our sources and senior Taliban members confirm that they can’t contact him,” Mashal said, adding that Omar had been living in Quetta, Pakistan, for 10 years.

The Afghan Taliban forcefully denied reports their leader is dead, dismissing them as “claims and rumors” from the “Kabul stooge regime’s intelligence directorate.”