Three Daesh commanders killed in Bajaur

PESHAWAR: The security forces dealt a heavy blow to the terrorist group, ISIS, commonly known as Daesh, when it eliminated its operational commander for Pakistan and also those overseeing its operations in Karachi and Bajaur.

Official sources said that on Monday the security forces spotted and killed Zubair, the operational commander of Daesh for Pakistan, in the Tangi area of Bajaur tribal district along with Azizur Rahman aka Fida, the commander for Karachi. Zubair, who was the right-hand man of Daud Mehsud, was stated to be the “wali” or governor of Daesh for Pakistan.

The sources said that Fida’s wife Khadija, who was head of the women wing of Daesh, was arrested and is now in custody of the security forces. They added that Fida and Khadija had escaped several raids by the intelligence agencies to nab them in Karachi and had fled to Bajaur to avoid capture.

The security forces, including Pakistan Army and Frontier Corps North (FC North) troops, had earlier on November 19 killed Khalil aka Yasin, the Daesh commander for Mandal unit in Bajaur. The troops engaged and killed him in the Mandal area. He was reportedly involved in target killings of pro-government tribal elders, extortions and planting of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to attack members of the security forces and the peace committees formed to defend their areas against the militants.

The killing of the three important Daesh commanders is a serious setback for the terrorist organization and a major success for the armed forces. The ISIS Khorasan chapter was set up in Afghanistan in late 2014 with members from the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban. It has a number of Pakistanis in its ranks who quit the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to join the Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi-led terrorist outfit. Its first ‘ameer’ was Hafiz Saeed Khan Orakzai, a former TTP commander for Orakzai tribal district. He was killed in a US drone strike in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province bordering Pakistan’s Khyber and Mohmand tribal districts.

Daesh no longer controls any territory in Afghanistan after facing defeat in Nangarhar, Kunar and Jauzjan provinces at the hands of Afghan Taliban, Afghan government forces and due to US airstrikes. However, it still has many fighters in Afghanistan who try to cross over to Pakistan to carry out terrorist attacks.