Conflicting reports: Mystery surrounds TTP leader’s ‘death’

The Tariq Afridi group had claimed responsibility for the death of more than 20 Shias earlier this month.

ISLAMABAD:

A top Taliban commander, Tariq Afridi, has been shot dead by a relative in a family dispute, security officials said.

But the death was neither confirmed by the family nor the spokesperson of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Afridi was the TTP commander for tribal regions of Khyber and Lower Orakzai and the frontier regions of Kohat and Hangu.

A Peshawar-based security official told The Express Tribune by phone that Afridi was shot dead in a village in Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency.

The Express Tribune talked to at least six sources in the TTP and in Afridi’s family, but only two of them said they had information on his death.

Their accounts, however, varied.

One man, a commander in Bara sub-division associated with the Lashkar-e-Islam extremist group, said Afridi was shot at a jirga convened to settle a family feud two weeks ago. A relative of Afridi in Dara Adamkhel, however, said the incident took place two days ago in another area of the valley where a family member shot him while he was riding a horse.

At least four independent sources and the spokesperson of TTP Afridi’s group denied the death of Tariq. “He is still alive and around,” said the spokesperson, who introduced himself as Muhammad.

The Tariq Afridi group claimed had responsibility for the death of more than 20 Shias earlier this month who were plucked from a Gilgit-bound bus and executed.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2012.