Pakistani Taliban Senior Leader Killed in IED Attack
- Senior founding leader of the Taliban organisation Abdul wali executed on Sunday night.
- The TTP leader died along with the other two leaders of TTP in the Afghan region of Paktika.
- Abdul Wali also known as Omar Khalid Khorasani was the head of Jamaat ul-Ahrar (JuA) One of the most operationally active groups of TTP.
According to two sources within the leadership of the Pakistani Taliban, a senior founding leader of the organisation Abdul Wali was executed on Sunday night in a targeted attack.
Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), also referred to as the Pakistan Taliban, is an Afghan and Pakistani terrorist group that the US has designated as a foreign terrorist organisation. According to TTP sources who spoke to CNN, top commander Abdul Wali, also known as Omar Khalid Khorasani, died in an IED attack alongside two other TTP leaders. The killings took place in the Afghan region of Paktika, which borders Pakistan.
Wali was the head of Jamaat ul-Ahrar (JuA), a TTP-affiliated militant group, according to the US Department Of State. The US State Department also reported, that JuA, which was led by Wali, has been one of the TTP networks in Pakistan’s Punjab Province that has been most operationally active and has taken the blame for numerous attacks across the country.
Several of the deadliest terrorist acts in Pakistan have been blamed on the JuA, including the Easter Sunday bombing in 2016 that left at least 74 people dead and 362 more injured in a park in the city of Lahore. The “Rewards for Justice” programme of the US State Department offers a reward of up to $3 million for information regarding Abdul Wali.
The death of Abdul Wali has led the TTP and the Pakistani government to attempt to hold peace negotiations.
