Daily Times

A leader of the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Amir Nawaz, who was suspected to be the main character behind the murder of Japanese nationals – Dr Tetsu Nakamura in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar in 2019, has been killed, Afghan and Pakistani sources said on Wednesday.

No group has claimed responsibility for the killing of Nakamura, who was killed along with five of his aid workers when they were heading to office.

Nawaz also known as Haji Dubai was also wanted in Pakistan for his role in a series of killings and kidnappings in the tribal areas, Karachi, Punjab and Balochistan.

Security officials believe he was the mastermind of the Bannu jailbreak in April 2012 by a group of militants. Some 260 Taliban militants fled from the jail during the TTP-claimed attack.

Adnan Rasheed, who was on death row after being convicted by a field general court martial for engineering attack on then military ruler General Pervez Musharraf in Dec 2003, had also escaped. Militants from North Waziristan, their stronghold until 2014, had attacked the prison in large numbers but the officials on duty offered no resistance.

Pakistani security sources also confirmed that the TTP leader has been killed during “an armed conflict” in Afghanistan. Afghan and TTP sources say Amir Nawaz was killed during an operation near capital Kabul “a couple of days ago.”

There was no official word on the incident by either side.

Amir Nawaz had been associated with breakaway Mehsood factions of the TTP and later joined the main TTP group.

Amir Nawaz is another Pakistani militant leader killed in Afghanistan. There is a long list of Pakistani militant leaders killed in Afghanistan in US strikes.

On Jan. 28, Lashkar-e-Islam chief Mangal Bagh, who was wanted to Pakistan for attacks on security forces, was killed in a bomb blast in Nangarhar province. According to Zia-ul-Haq Amarkhel, Nangarhar governor, tweeted that Mangal Bagh, was killed in an IED explosion in Achin district along with his two bodyguards.

The TTP chief Maulvi Fazalullah was killed in a US drone strike in Kunar in June 2018.

The Daesh chief for Khorasan region Hafiz Saeed Khan Orakzai was killed in a US drone attack in Nangarhar in 2016 along with several militants.

The mastermind of the Army Public School massacre, responsible for the death of 150 students and staff members, has been killed in a drone strike in Afghanistan in 2016.