Mangal Bagh killed in Afghanistan

PESHAWAR: A known Pakistani militant commander Mangal Bagh was killed in a bomb explosion in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province on Thursday, Afghan officials and locals in the area said.

Ziaul Haq Amarkhel, the governor of Nangarhar, said in a statement that the Lashkar-i-Islami terrorist group’s leader Mangal Bagh was killed in a bomb blast along with his two security guards.

Mangal Bagh, stated to be in his early 50s and also known as Mangal Bagh Afridi, was the head of the outlawed militant group, Lashkar-i-Islam. He fought against the state and other militant groups in Khyber tribal district before escaping to Afghanistan following the 2008 military action in Bara and later Tirah Valley.

According to Afghan officials and locals, Mangal Bagh had gone to his son's house in Bandar Darra in Achin district in Nangarhar at around noon when the incident took place. He was reportedly leaving the house of his son when a bomb placed at the doorstep exploded. He was killed on the spot along with his 13-year-old daughter and two security guards.

No individual or group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. However, he had earned enmity of many people due to his strong-arm methods and because he had been changing alliances. He had once in the past become an ally of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the country's biggest terrorist group, before joining hands with the ISIS, or Daesh. Afghan Taliban sources said Mangal Bagh had once joined forces with the Afghan government-backed militia known as Arbaki to fight the Afghan Taliban in Nangarhar province.