Death of a dangerous man

Umar Naray alias Khalifa Umar alias Khalid Khurasani was the planner behind the Army Public School attack in Peshawar

Every major terrorist event wherever it happens in the world has a planner behind it. They may not be the person that decided to make the attack, but they are the ones that ensures it is carried out effectively. The planner is rarely directly involved. Like skilled bomb-makers, planners have ‘fingerprints’ that allow intelligence agencies to identify their handiwork and track them. Some planners are serial offenders and have a history of attacks, and one such was Umar Naray alias Khalifa Umar alias Khalid Khurasani who was the planner behind the Army Public School attack in Peshawar that killed 122 students and 22 others on December 16, 2014. He was also responsible for the attack on the PAF base in Badaber, Peshawar, that killed 29 and the Charsadda attack in January, 2016 that killed 18. A dangerous and prolific terrorist.

The US recently informed Pakistan that he was killed in a drone strike in Afghanistan on July 9^th, in Nangarhar province. Permission for the attack was given by President Ashraf Ghani according to the Afghan ambassador in Islamabad, Dr Omar Zakhilwal; a move that can only be interpreted positively by Pakistan. No safe havens in Afghanistan is the message, one that Pakistan might care to ponder. Naray had gone to Afghanistan soon after Operation Zarb-e-Azb commenced and he has not targeted Afghan or US assets, concentrating only on hitting targets in Pakistan. He did not go on to the US ‘Global Terrorist’ list until May 25^th or four days after Mullah Mansour was killed by a drone strike in Balochistan.

This is the first time that the Americans have taken down a senior member of the Pakistani Taliban who was operating cross-border but not directly against American and Afghan assets. This suggests a shift in American strategic policy as well as a still-operant linkage between American, Pakistani and Afghan intelligence agencies. Pakistan at least has seen the demise of a man who has wreaked havoc in recent years. An extra-judicial killing? Almost certainly. Any protests? Thus far we hear nothing but a ringing silence.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2016.

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