Taliban confirms death of APS, Bacha Khan University mastermind

PESHAWAR: Taliban has confirmed the death of militant commander who was the mastermind of Army Public School (APS) and Bacha Khan University attacks in Pakistan.

The proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in an email to the journalists on Wednesday confirmed the death of Umar Mansoor, the TTP’s commander in Peshawar and Dara Adam Khel.

The details regarding when, where and how Umar Mansoor died were not given by the banned organization's spokesman.

Earlier, there reports were circulating that Mansoor had been killed months earlier as well, at the time the TTP did not confirm or deny whether he was dead or alive.

Usman Mansoor Hafizullah will replace Umar Mansoor as the faction's commander in Darra Adam Khel and Peshawar, the spokesman said.

A Reuters report from 2014 stated that Umar Mansoor was educated in Islamabad and later at a seminary. He worked as a labourer in Karachi before he joined the TTP in 2007. He is said to have close ties to Mullah Fazlullah who was behind the attack on Malala Yousufzai.

Umar Mansoor, who had claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on Bacha Khan University in 2016, was said to be the mastermind of 2014's massacre at the Army Public School in Peshawar which left at least 144 people, mostly children, dead.