PESHAWAR: A key commander of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has beenkilled in exchange of fire with Afghan security forces, the militant groupconfirmed on Saturday.
In a statement published by the SITE monitoring group Friday, the TTP saidSheikh Khalid Haqqani, who served on the group’s consultative council andhad been a deputy leader, had been killed January 31.
“Haqqani [was killed] while fighting with slaves of the United States”, theTTP said.
Haqqani’s close confidant Qari Saifullah Peshawari was also killed in theclash that took place inside Afghanistan during a “mission”, a seniorTaliban leader told AFP.
Afghan security forces declined to comment, and it was not immediatelyclear what type of mission Haqqani may have been on.
Haqqani was not thought to be related to the Haqqani network, which is alsoaffiliated to the Afghan Taliban.
Read Top Stories
“Haqqani, also a writer of several books on different topics, was known forgiving a befitting reply to so-called torch-bearers of democracy,” the TTPsaid in its statement.
The “TTP resolves to carry forward the mission of Khalid Haqqani … wehave been taking revenge for [killing] of our comrades in the past and wewill avenge those [killings],” the group added.
Pakistan has been battling a homegrown militants insurgency for over adecade, with thousands of civilians and security personnel embracingmartyrdom in extremist attacks, especially after the TTP began theircampaign of violence in 2007.
Analysts have credited the fall to military offensives against the Talibanin the tribal areas of North Waziristan and Khyber where they wereheadquartered, as well as operations in the country’s largest city ofKarachi. -APP/AFP
