Three senior commanders of the Pakistani Taliban militant group have beenkilled in a blast in eastern Afghanistan, according to local news outlets.
Abdul Wali, also known as Omar Khalid Khorasani, was travelling with HafizDawlat and Mufti Hassan in Afghanistanlink Paktika province onthe border with Pakistan link whentheir car was hit by a roadside bomb on Sunday evening, the *Gandhara *newswebsite reported.
The three commanders were said to be living in Afghanistan’s Kunar andNangarhar provinces. They were travelling to Paktika’s Birmal district “forconsultation”, sources told *Gandhara*, which is affiliated with theUS-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
There was no immediate comment from Afghanistan’s Taliban government or thePakistani Taliban, formally known as Tahrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP.
Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Programme at the WilsonResearch Centre think tank, said Khorasani’s death had been reportedseveral times in the past.
Khorasani was a major figure in the Pakistani Taliban and his death wouldbe a “big blow” to the group, Mr Kugelman said on Twitter.
He described the commander as “brutal beyond words”.
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Mr Kugelman said Khorasani once claimed to have sheltered Ayman AlZawahiri, Al Qaeda leader’s who was killed in a US drone strikelinkinKabul last week.
According to *Gandhara*, Mufti Hassan was among nearly a dozen PakistaniTaliban commanders who pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr AlBaghdadi, who was killed in a US raid in Syria in 2019.
Hafiz Dawlat was considered to be an important TTP commander and a closeconfidant of Khorasani, *Gandhara *reported.
The news of their deaths comes amid a new ceasefirelinkbetweenPakistan’s military and the militant group as they discuss a peaceagreement.
The group, which is based mainly in Pakistan’s north-western regionbordering Afghanistan, increased attacks on the militarylinkafterthe Afghan Taliban seized power in Kabul in August last year.
