ISLAMABAD – The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) announced it hadappointed a new leader on Saturday after the militant group confirmed forthe first time its former chief Mullah Fazlullah was killed in a US dronestrike last week.
US forces targeted Fazlullah in a counter-terrorism strike on June 14 inAfghanistan’s eastern Kunar province, close to the border with Pakistan.
US officials had not confirmed whether the strike was successful but AfghanPresident Ashraf Ghani later confirmed the killing to Caretaker PrimeMinister Nasir-ul-Mulk and Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa inphone calls.
In a statement sent to AFP on Saturday, TTP spokesman Mohammad Khurasaniconfirmed Fazlullah was killed in the US drone strike.
“It is a matter of pride that all leaders of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistanhave been martyred by infidels,” Khurasani said, referring to Fazlullah’stwo predecessors who were also killed in drone strikes.
The group’s shura council elected Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud to replace him, headded.
The Pakistan Army has called Fazlullah’s apparent death a “positivedevelopment”.
He is believed to have ordered the failed 2012 assassination of MalalaYousafzai, who became a global symbol of the fight for girls’ rights toschooling, and who later won the Nobel Peace Prize.
TTP was also behind the massacre of more than 150 people, including morethan 100 schoolchildren, at Peshawar’s Army Public School in December 2014.
The militant leader went into hiding in Afghanistan in 2009 and his death”gives relief to scores of Pakistani families who fell victims to TTPterror including the APS massacre”, an Inter-Services Public Relationsstatement had said