Maulana Fazlullah, the dreaded chief of Pakistani Taliban, has been killed in a US drone strike in Afghanistan’s restive Kunar province, an Afghan Defence Ministry official said on Friday.
Fazlullah was the man in charge of the Pakistan Taliban’s (TTP) operations in Pakistan’s Swat Valley when student activist Malala Yousafzai was shot in 2012.
He was designated as a global terrorist by the US and carried a bounty of USD 5 million. He had been on the run since his loyalists were routed in a major military operation in Pakistan’s Swat district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province in 2009.
US forces had conducted the strike close to the border of Pakistan, targeting the “Emir” of the group, according US Forces-Afghanistan spokesman lt Col Martin O’Donnell.
Fazlullah had been a major figure in the TTP even before he became emir in late 2013, and led a Pakistan Taliban militia in the country’s Swat Valley prior to his elevation to leadership of the group.
The US military said yesterday it carried out a strike targeting a senior militant leader in Afghanistan. It, however, did not identify the terrorist.
In Kabul, Afghan Ministry of Defense spokesman Mohammad Radmanish confirmed to CNN that Fazlullah, who is believed to be in his forties, was killed in the strike on Wednesday.
The Express Tribune, citing sources, also said the drone strike that took place in the Nur Gul Kalay village of Dangam district in eastern Kunar province killed Fazlullah and four other TTP commanders.
Fazlullah, also known by the alias Radio Mullah or Maulana Radio due to his long sermons on a private radio channel, and his commanders were having an Iftar party at a compound when a remotely piloted US aircraft targeted them, reports said.