Afghan President telephones COAS Bajwa, shares news of Mullah Fazlullah killing

RAWALPINDI: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani called Chief of Army Staff, General Qamar Javed Bajwa and shared news about killing of Mullah Fazlullah in a drone strike in Kunar province of Afghanistan.

According to Inter Services Public Relations, Ashraf Ghani called COAS and shared news about killing of Mullah Fazal Ullah (MFU) in a drone strike in Kunar Province.

Mullah Fazlullah was hiding in Afghanistan since 2009 and masterminded scores of terrorist attacks against Pakistan including Army Public School.

Killing of TTP Commander is a positive development, the ISPR said and added that it gives relief to scores of Pakistani families who fell victim to TTP terror including APS massacre.

Pakistan military leadership has always maintained that a cooperative and coordinated approach is the best response to the menace of terrorism.

Earlier, a senior Afghan Defence Ministry official told Reuters on Friday that Pakistani Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah was killed in a U.S. air strike near the border with Afghanistan on Thursday.

The U.S. military said in Washington on Thursday it had carried out a strike aimed at a senior militant figure in Kunar province and one U.S. official said the target was believed to be Fazlullah.

Fazlullah is Pakistan´s most-wanted militant, notorious for attacks including a 2014 school massacre that killed 132 children and the separate 2012 shooting of schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

A member of the Pakistani Taliban told Reuters by telephone on Friday said the group was trying to get word from Afghanistan, where most of the Pakistani Taliban fighters are now based.

They are separate from the Afghan Taliban who ruled Afghanistan for five years before being ousted in a 2001 U.S. -led military action.