Daily Times

Gunmen have killed a senior and influential Afghan Taliban commander near Peshawar, a Taliban leader and a family member said on Sunday.

The gunmen sprayed bullets at Commander Abdul Samad Mullah Toor when he was offering morning prayers at a mosque in Muslim City area near Tarnab, a small town in the outskirts of Peshawar, on Tuesday.

“Mullah Toor was injured and died of wounds in a hospital,” a family member said, adding Toor was staying with relatives near Tarnab area of Peshawar. He was living in Akora Khattak as a refugee. Taliban spokesman evaded comments when a query was posted on his WhatsApp.

Witnesses said the gunmen fled after the incident and supporters of the slain commander are searching for the killer in the area. A family member said that “personal enmity” resulted in the death of Mullah Toor. He said another Taliban commander Mullah Mosa was suspected to be behind the killing.

Mosa’s brother was killed by Toor’s son, brother and cousins in Afghanistan’s Sarobi area near capital Kabul. That murder was also an act of revenge as Toor’s brother Abdul Samad was killed two years ago and Mosa was blamed for the murder.

Mullah Mosa, also a Taliban commander, is a teacher at a religious school in the Regi area of Peshawar. Both Taliban commanders belonged to Sarobi and had dispute over a school, according to a relative of Toor.

Mosa had approached the Taliban against Mullah Toor and the Taliban leaders were holding court proceedings against him, but Mosa killed him in violation of his own request, a Taliban leader said.

Toor had taken part in major operations against the foreign and Afghan forces in Sarobia and its outskirts in recent years. He was one of the Taliban’s strongest commanders, according to the Taliban who knew him.

Mullah Abdul Haq, his cousin, has been appointed as a new commander in place of Toor. Toor’s body was taken to Afghanistan and buried in Sarobi. Several Taliban leaders have been assassinated in parts of Pakistan in recent years.

Unidentified gunmen shot dead Dr Nasiruddin Haqqani, the brother of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban deputy chief near Islamabad in November 2013.

A former senior Taliban figure, Abdullah alias Maulvi Abdul Raqeeb – who was known to be in favour of peace talks with the Hamid Karzai administration – was gunned down in Peshawar in February 2014.

Meanwhile, a former Taliban spokesman Abdul Hai Mutmayeen died of coronavirus in Peshawar on Saturday, Taliban officials said. Mutmayeen had served as the Taliban spokesman after Mullah Omar launched the Taliban movement in Kandahar in 1994. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed Mutmayeen’s death and conveyed condolences to his family.

Meanwhile, five suspected terrorists, including two Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commanders, were killed in two intelligence-based operations carried out by security forces in the North Waziristan tribal district, the military’s media wing said on Sunday.

The two terrorist commanders slain during the raids in North Waziristan’s Mir Ali and Khaisur areas were identified as Syed Raheem alias Abid of TTP (AKK group) and Saifullah Noor of TTP (Gohar group).

According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Raheem was the in-charge of “two suicide bombing centres in Wana and Mir Ali areas” and was “tasked by hostile agencies for target killing, recruiting new terrorists and organising them”, the ISPR statement said. Saifullah Noor, meanwhile, was “directly involved in different IED attacks on security forces in Khaisur”, according to the ISPR.