US drone strike kills Pakistan Taliban chief Fazlullah

ISLAMABAD: A US drone strike in eastern Afghanistan has killed Mullah Fazlullah, one of the world’s most wanted terrorists and chief of the Pakistani Taliban, officials confirmed on Friday.

“President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, called General Qamar Javed Bajwa, chief of army staff, and shared the news about the killing of Mullah Fazlullah in a drone strike in Afghanistan province Kunar,” read a statement issued by the Pakistani army’s media wing, the Inter Services Public Relations.

Fazalullah had been hiding in Afghanistan since the army launched operation against militants in 2009.

A tribal leader from Afghanistan’s Kunar province, Jahan Sardar, said five people, including Mullah Fazlullah, were killed on June 13. “Another four Pakistani Taliban were killed in the attack, which was carried out by a drone.”

Pakistani political and military leaders had demanded that international and Afghan security forces take firmer action against Fazlullah’s group, which is based in Afghanistan.

“Killing of the TTP (Tehrik-italiban Pakistan) commander is a positive development. It gives relief to scores of Pakistani families who fell victim to TTP terror including the Army Public School massacre,” the statement added.

The Afghan president also called Pakistan’s prime minister, retired justice Nasirul Mulk, to confirm the death of Fazalullah, a statement from the prime minister’s office said. said to be

“Finally action had been taken against an enemy of the people and state of Pakistan,” Mulk said.

Fazlullah was elected to lead the Pakistani Taliban in 2013 after the death of his predecessor, Hakimullah Mehsud, in a US drone strike.

He had ordered the attack on the world’s youngest Nobel laureate, Malala Yousafzai, in 2012 and masterminded a 2014 attack on a military-run school in Pakistan in which more than 150 people, including 125 children, were killed. – dpa/ African News Agency (ANA)