Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s six top commanders on Tuesday pledged allegiance to the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who has been vying for supremacy with al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said he along with five other commanders have accepted the leadership of Al-Baghdadi, chief of the Islamic State or ISIS or IS which has seized hundreds of square miles in Iraq and Syria. Al-Baghdadi, leader of the ISIS, declared himself as Caliph and renamed his dreaded group as the Islamic State. Shahidullah identified others as the Taliban’s Orakzai Agency chief Saeed Khan, Kurram Agency chief Daulat Khan, Khyber Agency chief Fateh Gul Zaman, Peshawar chief Mufti Hassan and Hangu chief Khalid Mansoor.