Killing of Taliban chief ‘significant’
Mulk makes comment in conversation with Afghan president
Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Nasir-ul-Mulk described the killing of Pakistan Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah in a US drone strike in Afghanistan as a “significant development in the fight against terrorism.”
Mulk made the comment in a telephone conversation on Friday night with Afghan President Ashraf Gani and thanked him for sharing information about Fazlullah’s killing, said a Pakistan government statement.
The call was initiated by Gani, who tweeted that Fazlullah’s killing was “the result of tireless human intel by Afghan security agencies.”
Confirmation
A US official said the US believes that it is likely the strike killed Fazlullah, but efforts are ongoing to confirm his death. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss preliminary information. In his tweet, Gani said he also called Pakistan’s Army Chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa. In both conversations Gani said he urged Pakistan “to take practical steps to bring Afghan Taliban residing in Pakistan to the negotiation table.”
Thursday’s drone strike, which reportedly killed Fazlullah and five other insurgents when missiles slammed into the car in which they were driving, occurred just hours before Afghanistan’s
Taliban began a three-day cease fire.
In his conversation with Gani, Mulk said that Fazlullah’s death would be received throughout Pakistan with relief as Pakistanis had borne the brunt of terrorist attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which Fazlullah headed.
The Pakistan government statement also said an “action had finally been taken against an enemy of the people and state of Pakistan.”
Fazlullah’s group — Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Urdu — was behind the massacre of more than 150 people at a Peshawar school in December 2014, and nine dead in another attack in December 2017 in the same city. He went into hiding in Afghanistan in 2009 and his death “gives relief to scores of Pakistani families who fell victims to TTP terror including the (school) massacre,” the Pakistani army statement added.
The US State Department in March announced a $5 million reward for help locating Fazlullah, who has been linked to bloody attacks in Pakistan and the attempted Times Square car bombing in New York in 2010.