After death of Al Qaeda chief, top TTP commander, 3 others killed in Afghanistan

New Delhi: A week after the death of Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul, the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) top leader Omar Khalid Khorasani and three other top terrorist leaders were killed in a mysterious explosion in eastern Afghanistan’s Paktika province, as per Pakistani government sources.

According to Afghan officials and local sources, a vehicle carrying senior commanders of the militant group, including Khorasani, was targeted by a mysterious explosive device on Sunday.

The report said that the top militants were on their way to a meeting in Birmal district of the province when their vehicle blew up.

Other TTP commanders like Abdul Wali Mohammad, Mufti Hassan and Hafiz Daulat Khan in the vehicles were also killed, a senior Afghan official was quoted as saying.

According to a local, the TTP leader was travelling “for consultation” when his vehicle collided with a roadside mine on Sunday.

Khorasani, who belonged to Pakistan’s Mohmand (tribal) Agency, was considered a top member of TTP – the terrorist group that seeks to enforce Sharia law across Pakistan and there was a reward of Rs 1 crore on his head.

Daulat Khan from the Orakzai Agency was an important member of the Daulat group and a close trustee of Khorasani, while Mufti Hasan, from Malkand, had pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the deceased leader of the Islamic State.

According to local Afghan sources, TTP intelligence chief Abdul Rashid alias Ukabi Bajouri was also killed in a landmine blast in Kunar province of Afghanistan on Sunday morning.

However, the TTP is yet to confirm the targeted killings of its top commanders, an incident that would certainly undermine the Afghan Taliban-brokered peace talks between the TTP and the Pakistani government.

The news comes after talks between the outlawed group and Pakistan reached an impasse as the outfit refused to back down on its demand to reverse the merger of the then Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATF) with Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

(IANS)