Ashraf Ghani phones Nawaz Sharif, confirms APS mastermind's death

PM Nawaz thanks Afghan president on the 'elimination of TTP terrorists from Afghan soil' responsible for the massacre

ISLAMABAD: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani called Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday and formally informed him about APS mastermind's death in an airstrike.

Umar Mansur, alias Aurangzeb, was a member of the Tariq Geedar Group, which was not only responsible for the 144 deaths, mostly children, in the attack on Army Public School, Peshawar but also claimed responsibility for the attacks on Peshawar Airport and Bacha Khan University.

Ghani informed the premier that Mansur was killed last week along with his four accomplices in a drone strike by coalition forces, a statement from the PM office read.

“He [the Afghan leader] said the APS massacre was a great tragedy for Pakistan and the world, and the perpetrators got the ultimate response,” it added.



President Ghani also inquired after the premier's health following his heart surgery in a London hospital last month.

PM Nawaz thanked Afghan president on the “elimination of TTP terrorists from Afghan soil” responsible for the massacre, the communique said.

Further, the premier said that Pakistan is fighting terrorism and is fully committed to eliminate the last terrorist from its soil, saying its security forces had rendered unequalled sacrifices.

Afghan ambassador in Islamabad Dr Omar Zakhilwal had earlier claimed that the airstrike to eliminate the Mansur was “ordered” by President Ghani.

Earlier this week, the United States defence department said that a drone strike in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province on July 9 had killed Umar Mansur along with four others.

Mansur was responsible for the APS tragedy, attack on Peshawar Airport, PAF airbase at Badabher and Bacha Khan University, the Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook had said.



Meanwhile, an official said Mansur's death had confirmed that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) operates from the Afghan side of the border.

On May 21, Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US drone strike in Naushki district of Balochistan shortly after he entered Pakistan from Iran.

Similarly, on July 9, 2015, a US drone killed former TTP spokesperson, Shahidullah Shahid in Nangarhar along with several other militants. Shahid was also working as the spokesperson for Daesh when he was killed.