Militant commander Fazal Saeed Haqqani shot dead in Kurram

PARACHINAR: A militant commander Fazal Saeed Haqqani and his associate were shot dead in Kurram Agency on Thursday, sources said.

The sources said that one of the security guards of Fazal Saeed Haqqani, chief of the militant organisation Tehrik-i-Taliban Islami Pakistan, fired at him outside his house in Parachinar. As a result, the sources said that Fazal Saeed Haqqani and another militant Sher Zaman were killed on the spot.

They said that Idrees Afridi, the security guard who shot dead the two men, managed to escape after the firing. He was stated to be a resident of Khyber Agency.Fazal Saeed Haqqani was the chief of the proscribed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for Kurram Agency for a number of years. Later he developed differences with the TTP leadership, including Hakimullah Mahsud, and ended his affiliation with it.

At the time he had alleged that the TTP was involved in the killing of innocent people and, therefore, he was quitting it.Subsequently, he launched his own militant organisation named Tehrik-i-Taliban Islami Pakistan. It claimed responsibility for several bomb blasts and acts of terrorism carried out in Parachinar, the headquarters of Kurram Agency. Sources said the funeral prayers for Fazal Saeed Haqqani and his associate Sher Zaman would be offered today in lower Kurram Agency.