New Delhi, Aug 8 : A week after the death of Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul, the banned Tehreek-et-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) top leader Omar Khalid Khorasani and three other top terrorist leaders were killed in an unknown explosion in the eastern part of Afghanistan’s Paktika province, according to Pakistani officials.
According to Afghan officials and local sources, a vehicle that was carrying the top commandants of the group including Khorasani was targeted by an unknown explosive device on Sunday.
The report stated that the top militants were heading to a gathering in Birmal district of the province when their vehicle caught fire.
Other TTP commanders such as Abdul Wali Mohammad, Mufti Hassan and Hafiz Daulat Khan in the vehicles were also killed according to a senior Afghan official was quoted as saying.
According to an individual in the area report, the TTP leader was traveling “for discussion” at the time his car was involved in a collision with an abandoned mine on Sunday.
Khorasani was a member of the Pakistani Mohmand (tribal) Agency was regarded as the top member of TTP the terrorist group which aims to implement Sharia law throughout Pakistan and also an award of 1 crore rupees on his head.
Daulat Khan of the Orakzai Agency was an important member of the Daulat group, and was a trusted trustee of Khorasani as well as Mufti Hasan, who hails from Malkand was a sworn loyalty to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the late head of the Islamic State.
Based on local Afghan sources, TTP intelligence chief Abdul Rashid AKA Ukabi Bajouri was killed in an explosion of a landmine in Kunar province of Afghanistan on Sunday morning.
However the TTP has not yet ready to announce the targeted murders of its most powerful commanders, an event that could sabotage the Afghan Taliban-mediated peace talks with the TTP and the Pakistani government.
The news comes as talks between the group that is outlawed and Pakistan ended in a deadlock as the group refused to compromise on its demand to stop the merger of the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATF) with Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
anil/sks
