Ex-TTP commander Gul Zaman killed in drone strike in Afghanistan

PESHAWAR: An important Pakistani Taliban commander Gul Zaman has been killed in a US drone strike in Afghanistan, Afghan and militants’ sources said.
They said Gul Zaman, who was the deputy head of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for Orakzai Agency before joining the Islamic State group, was killed along with several other militants in the US drone attack in Achin district of Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province not far from Pakistan’s border. Gul Zaman was deputy to Hafiz Saeed Khan Orakzai, who earlier headed the TTP unit in Orakzai Agency and is now the Islamic State chief for the Khorasan chapter, which includes both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
It isn’t known if Hafiz Saeed is also based in the same area in Afghanistan. Most of the TTP commanders and fighters have fled to eastern Afghanistan after suffering defeat at the hands of the Pakistani security forces that undertook major military operations in the last few years in Orakzai Agency, Khyber Agency, Kurram Agency and North Waziristan and South Waziristan.
The US has stepped up drone strikes in Nangarhar province, particularly in the areas bordering Pakistan in recent weeks and killed a number of militants belonging to the TTP, Islamic State and Afghan Taliban.