AFGHANISTAN: A top leader of the Pakistani militant group, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TPP), and the other two members were targeted and killed in a bomb attack in Afghanistan.
A Senior Commander named Adul Wali, also known as Omar Khalid Khorasani, who had a bounty placed on his head for $3 million, was en route with other veteran members, in the Birmal District of Patrika province, bordering Pakistan when their vehicle suddenly confronted a roadside mine.
AP reports Khorasani’s vehicle was struck on Sunday night in a targeted IED (Improvised Explosive Device) attack.
Consequently, the Taliban confirmed the attack on Monday and launched an investigation into the matter.
Taliban spokesperson Muhammad Khorasani said, “Senior TTP leader Omar Khalid Khorasani and two other members of the banned outfit were killed in a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan on Sunday evening.”
Khorasani was a former journalist and poet, a wanted man with a bounty to his name declared by the Pakistani government for his involvement in various terrorist attacks on tribal leaders, security personnel, and members of the peace committee in the region, Dawn reports.
Omar and a majority of the TPP members had disconnected themselves from the Mohmand agency and later established a splinter group called Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat Ahrar (TPP-JA) in 2014 after he accused the top leadership of deviation from the group’s collective ideals.
The leader’s recent and unexpected demise poses a major blow to the group, especially since it is currently engaged in peace talks with the Pakistani government.
Meanwhile, the TTP-JA is also incriminated in various violent acts, including the Easter Sunday explosion of 2016, which killed at least 74 and injured around 362 others in a park in Lahore.
