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Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud is the new TTP Leader

KUNAR: The banned militant outfit TTP’s Shura Council has today disclosed the name of their new chief, 40-year-old Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud.

Noor Wali Mehsud will be their Amir after Mullah Fazlullah, who was droned to death on 14th June (2018) in Kunar Province (close to Pakistan border) like two of his predecessors. 

Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud who had got his Islamic edification at a number of seminaries in Pakistan had penned the details of planning the 2007 assassination of Benazir Bhutto under the leadership of Baitullah Mehsud. 

Death of Mullah Fazlullah: 

Hours after COAS Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa left Kabul for Pakistan*, US armed forces carried out a drone attack here on Wednesday 13th June at 9 am local time, killing (Fazal Hayat, commonly known as) Mullah Fazlullah or Maulana Radio.**

Mullah Fazlullah was made the TTP chief when his predecessor Hakimullah Mehsud was droned to death in North Waziristan by US forces on 1st of November 2013. It is pertinent to mention here that Fazlullah was the first non-Mehsud*** to head TTP. 

Graves of Maulana Radio and his associates!

Afghan defense ministry spokesman proclaimed: “I confirm that Mullah Fazlullah, leader of the Pakistani Taliban, has been killed in a joint air operation – with the US – in the border area of Marawera district of Kunar province.”Confirming the death of Mullah Fazlullah, TTP said that Afghan intelligence service (National Directorate of Security/Riyāsat-e Amniyat-e Milli – NDS) provided information facilitating the drone attack. It is yet to be ascertained who got the head money of $5million****.

A spokesman for US Forces-Afghanistan told:  “US forces conducted a counterterrorism strike June 13 in Kunar province, close to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which targeted a senior leader of a designated terrorist organization.”

According to sources while 3,739 were killed in 2012 by armed groups including TTP, the number came down to 748 deaths in 2017. Pakistan Military claims to have killed over 4000 TTP fighters.

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* So far Pakistan and Afghanistan have held seven meetings on Afghanistan Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Stability (APAPPS – formed following the deadly attack on Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel that also claimed life of Afghan envoy to Pakistan) during 2018. In one such meetings Afghanistan has been asked by Pakistan to hand over 43 militants including Fazal Hayat.

* *Fazal Hayat/Fazlullah was called Maulana Radio as he also used to transmit broadcasts of his sermons on a clandestine local FM radio channel. 

***Mehsud is a tribe mostly based in South Waziristan Agency (in Pakistan).

****US designated him a global terrorist and put a bounty of $5 million.

M M Alam

M. M. Alam is a Pakistan-based working journalist since 1981. Karachi University faculty gold medalist Alam began his career four decades ago by writing for Dawn, Pakistan’s highest circulating English daily. He has worked for region’s leading publications, global aviation periodicals including Rotors (of USA) and vetted New York Times as permanent employee of daily Express Tribune. Alam regularly covers international aviation and defense-related events including Salon Du Bourget (France), Farnborough (United Kingdom), Dubai (UAE). Alam has reported thousands of events and interviewed hundreds of people in Pakistan, UAE, EU, UK and USA. Being Francophone Alam also coordinates with a number of French publications.