Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Army’s Inter-Services Public Relations on Wednesday confirmed the killing of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan commander Umar Naray in a CIA-controlled unmanned drone in Afghanistan.

Born and brought up as Aurangzeb in Adezai village some 25 kilometers south of Peshawar near the semi-tribal Darra Adamkhel area, Umar Naray changed his name to a more respectable Khalifa Umar Mansur to gain respect in the TTP ranks. The tall and lean terrorist commander was reportedly killed in a drone strike in the early hours of Saturday along with three other Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commanders, one of them being Qari Saifullah in Acheena Bandar, Nangrahar province of Afghanistan. However, the TTP has not yet confirmed the death of one of their most ferocious terrorist commanders.

The deceased militant commander was the mastermind of at least three major terrorist attacks in the past two years. The first deadly attack planned by Umar Mansur was the 16 December 2014 massacre of 122 children and 22 staff members of the Army Public School Peshawar. He also claimed responsibility for attacks on Pakistan Air Force Badaber air base killing 29 persons and the attack on Bacha Khan University in Charsadda where 18 students were killed at the hands of terrorists sent by Umar Mansur. Umar Naray started walking the path of violence when he joined the Taliban in 2007.

However, he came to limelight when he became head of the notorious Tariq Geedar terrorist group in Darra Adamkhel after the killing of its founding leader Tariq Afridi. A Twitter message by Director General ISPR Lt-Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa read that Commander of the Resolute Support Mission (RSM) in Afghanistan has confirmed the death of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander in a telephone conversation with Army Chief General Raheel Sharif. Umar Naray was designated a global terrorist by the US State Department on May 25 this year. Of late, the US had been trying hard to target TTP terrorists hiding in Afghanistan’s Nangrahar, Kunar and Nuristan provinces after they were fled the military action in Swat region in 2009.

A credible source told Daily Times on condition of anonymity that the US was also trying to eliminate the elusive TTP leader Mulla Fazalullah in a number of drone attacks. “The Pakistan Army has complained to the US about the existence of Mullah Fazalullah till now. In response, the US has maintained that Fazalullah is a prime target and they are trying hard to take him down but he has escaped a number of attacks. The terroists are always on the move between Nuristan, Kunar and Nangrahar to avoid drone attacks,” he said.