A senior Taliban commander, believed to be a key planner in the Peshawar school massacre, has been killed by the security forces in Pakistan’s troubled Khyber Agency.
Officials identified the slain terrorist as Saddam and added he was killed in a gunfight with armed forces in Khyber tribal area bordering Peshawar on Thursday night. “Saddam had been killed in the Gundi area of Jamrud by the security forces in an operation on Friday. His six other accomplices were wounded and arrested. He is believed to have facilitated the school attack but the extent of his involvement was not known,” Peshawar Political Agent of Khyber Agency Shahab Ali Shah told the media.
A member of the Tariq Gedar group of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Saddam had facilitated the seven attackers who had attacked the Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16 and killed 150 people, mostly children.Saddam was also planner of killing of 11 security personnel and eight scouts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa last year.