Mastermind of APS attack killed in drone strike in Afghanistan

RAWALPINDI: The mastermind of the attack on the Army Public School (APS), Peshawar, and head of a banned terrorist outfit Umar Narai alias Khalifa Khalid Umar or Khalid Khurasani has been killed in a drone attack in Afghanistan.

Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lt Gen Asim Bajwa said in a message on Twitter that Commander Resolute Support Mission John W Nicholson called Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif on Wednesday and confirmed the death of terrorist Umar Narai alias Khalifa Umar or Khalid Khurasani as a result of a recent drone strike in Afghanistan.

In Kabul, the US military confirmed it had conducted a counterterrorism strike in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar on Sunday but gave no details.The Pakistani Taliban made no official comment. One senior member of the group said the movement had decided not to comment on the death until a successor had been chosen.

“It’s a huge loss to the small but most effective Taliban faction of Khalifa Umar Mansoor,” the commander said. “There is no such prominent figure of his status to run his organisation.”The strike was the second in the space of two months against a senior insurgent leader close to the frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan.In May, Mulla Akhtar Mansour, leader of the Afghan Taliban, was killed by a drone on the Pakistani side of the border.