Most-wanted TTP commander killed in Khyber

A most-wanted commander of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was among three terrorists killed in two separate encounters with the security forces in the Khyber and North Waziristan districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday.

TTP commander, identified as Hazrat Ali alias Gagga, was killed in a ground offense  by the military in the Tirah Valley of the Khyber district. The operation is aimed at eliminating the remnants of the Lashkar-e-Islam outfit, who trying to settle in the Tirah Valley, while coming from neighbouring Afghanistan.

Lashkar-e-Islam was led by Mangal Bagh, who was later killed in a bomb blast in Afghanistan over three years ago. Gagga was stated to the main operational commander of the terrorist outfit, which had sided the TTP.

Earlier, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement that two terrorists were killed in an exchange of fire between the security forces and terrorists in the North Waziristan district in the night between April 6 and 7.

According to the media wing of the military, security forces effectively engaged terrorists’ location as a result of which “two terrorists were sent to hell” and weapons and explosives were recovered from them.

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A “sanitisation operation is being conducted to eliminate any other terrorist found in the area as the security forces of Pakistan are determined to wipe out the menace of terrorism from the country,” the military’s media wing concluded.

Terrorist violence continues unabated in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, especially in the regions near the border with Afghanistan. On Saturday that at least a dozen terrorists were eliminated in intelligence-based operations (IBOs) in the northwest and southwest of the country.

Security forces killed eight terrorists in Dera Ismail Khan district during an intense exchange of fire. According to the ISPR, the terrorists were engaged in various criminal activities, including attacks on security forces and deliberate targeting of innocent civilians.

Two more terrorists were killed in another IBO in North Waziristan district, the ISPR said. A third IBO was launched in Panjgur district of Balochistan and two terrorists identified as Asad and Hasrat, were killed, according to the ISPR.

Also on Saturday, a senior police official and his two guards were martyred in an ambush in the southern Lakki Marwat district. Gunmen ambushed the vehicle of DSP Gul Muhammad Khan near Manjiwala Chowk on a link road of Indus Highway with automatic weapons late on Friday night.

A spokesperson said that DSP Khan and Constable Naseem Gul succumbed to their injuries en route to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Sarai Naurang, while Constable Salamat died while being driven to Peshawar for treatment of his life-threatening wounds.

(WITH INPUT FROM NEWS DESK)