close
Friday March 29, 2024

US places head money on top three Pak militant commanders

By Mushtaq Yusufzai
March 10, 2018

PESHAWAR: The expected improvement in relations between the United States and Pakistan could increase hardships of the Afghanistan-based Pakistani Taliban as the US Department of Justice placed head-money on top three Pakistani militant commanders.

As per media reports, the US placed head-money of $5 million on Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) head Mullah Fazlullah and $30 million each on Abdul Wali aka Omar Khalid Khurasani and Mangal Bagh.

Also, Pakistani Taliban on Friday confirmed the loss of their 21 members in a rare US drone strike on their alleged training facility in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province near the border with Pakistan's Mohmand Agency. Those killed in the missile strike included 16-year old Abdullah, the elder son of Mullah Fazlullah Khurasani.

Mohammad Khurasani, spokesman for the proscribed TTP, released a statement to the media on Friday to confirm the killing of their 21 members. He claimed the drone targeted a madrassa and all those killed were students.

Pakistani security authorities were, however, quite sure that all those killed in the drone strike were trained fighters, the majority belonged to Swat. They shared names and home addresses of all the drone victims soon after they were killed in what they termed was a training facility run by Commander Hilal.

As per an account of the security officials, over two dozen militants were being trained in the camp as suicide bombers when it came under attack from the CIA-operated pilotless aircraft.

In the list of slain militants, Abdullah’s name was number 7th and he was mentioned as the son of Imam Dherai village in Kabal. In Swat, Fazlullah lived in Imam Dherai from where he first started his campaign by attracting hundreds of people to his emotional Friday sermon. He later began collecting donations and built a huge mosque-madrassa complex on the riverbank.