The death of Bagh

The killing of Lashkar-e-Islam leader Mangal Bagh in a US drone attack in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan comes just a couple of weeks after TTP commander Umar Mansoor, the alleged mastermind of the Peshawar school attack, was killed in a similar attack. Pakistan has long wondered why the US does not take action against militant leaders who use their bases in Afghanistan to stage attacks in Pakistan even while it targets militants in the tribal areas. Whether the US has changed tack is still a matter of speculation. The killing of Mangal Bagh will in itself not do much to reduce violence in the region. The Lashkar-e-Islam all but ceased operations when most of its fighters fled to Afghanistan after the launch of Operation Zarb-e-Azb. Mangal Bagh himself had Rs20 million head money placed on him by the Pakistani state, but he had ceased being seen as a great threat. In recent months there were reports that Mangal Bagh was looking to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State. It is unclear if he intended to join the IS only as a rebranding effort or to join up with other IS-affiliated fighters. His days, though, as a militant leader were clearly behind him.

The US has not yet said if it specifically targeted Mangal Bagh and Masnoor or if they happened to be caught in an attack. Pakistan, however, may now use these incidents to demand more loudly that the US go after Mullah Fazlullah of the TTP who, like Mangal Bagh, fled to Afghanistan because of a military operation – in his case the 2007 Swat operation. We have long felt that Fazlullah – an active threat to us unlike Mangal Bagh – has been allowed to base himself in the Kunar province of Afghanistan, and the Afghan government is at least turning a blind eye to his activities, if not supporting him. Mangal Bagh, like Fazlullah, made his name by running a popular illegal FM channel. A former truck driver, Bagh was given the leadership of Lashkar-e-Islam by Mufti Munir Shakir and frequently took credit for attacks which were later found to have been carried out by others. Bagh used to claim that he had as many as 180,000 fighters at his disposal, but the true number was likely a fraction of that. Still, he had declared war on the Pakistani state and still commanded a following that he could have activated any time. As such, his killing will be marked as another blow in the fight against militancy.