PESHAWAR: Afghan and Pakistani militants have been thrown into disarray after the United States (US) recently conducted three drone strikes targeting specific areas near the Pak-Afghan border and killing at least 31 militants. Key militant commanders are also reported to be dead in the US strikes.
The latest US drone strikes targeted Pakistani militant hideouts in Nazyan district located in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province near the Pak-Afghan border. As a result, around 11 persons were reported dead in the strikes and many were also injured.
It merits mention here that the banned militant outfit, namely Laskar-e-Islam, headed by Mangal Bagh Afridi from Khyber Agency, had taken refuge along with his loyalists in the Nazyan and Deh Bala districts of Nangarhar.
According to reports, another top militant commander Khalid Khurasani, chief of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) splinter group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), was critically injured in the US drone attack conducted in Afghanistan’s border province of Paktya. It was believed that top commanders belonging to JuA were taking shelter in Nangarhar province on the Afghan side and Khyber Agency, Mohmand Agency and Bajaur Agency on the Pakistani side.
However, the JuA were driven away from their strongholds on the Pakistani side after TTP Spokesman Qari Ehsanullah Ehsan surrendered to security forces earlier in the year. The TTP splinter group also suffered casualties after Afghan special forces launched an operation on September 30 in Lalpura district on the west side of the Kabul River, and killed seven militants including two commanders of JuA.
Though reports of Khurasani being critically injured in the recent US drone strikes had been circulating around different media channels since Tuesday noon, but the news had neither been confirmed nor denied by his loyalists. Journalists from Mohmand Agency, the native area of Khurasani, have for the time being termed the reports as rumours.
According to sources, militants representing the Islamic State (IS) had approached JuA commanders in Kunar province a couple of days ago and requested access to Mohmand and Bajaur Agencies, but their request was rejected by JuA.
On the other hand, four Pakistani nationals belonging to Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan were also reported killed in the US drone strikes that allegedly targeted militant hideouts in Ghauz Garhi area of Kurram Agency on Monday night. Around 26 militants, including two top commanders from Pakistan and Afghanistan, were killed in the attack. The dead bodies of the four Pakistani nationals reached Bannu on Tuesday and were buried later in the evening.
According to reports from local media channels, the four deceased persons were identified as Abid s/o Abdul Rehman from Sada Khel village, Samiullah s/o Dil Raaz from Patool Khel village, Irfanullah s/o of Shah Qeyaz belonging to Said Khel village, and Ibrahim s/o of Omarzai belonging to Bannu city. The funeral of the deceased was attended by a large number of people in their native villages.
Though no concrete evidence suggesting the involvement of the four deceased persons in militant activities have surfaced so far, but the people attending their funerals believed that the young men were innocent and chanted slogans in support of jihad, while also blaming the US for targeting innocent civilians through drone strikes.
Nevertheless, a mysterious kind of fear seemed to have taken hold in the native villages of the young men killed in the US drone strikes, and relatives of the deceased men refused to comment on their past lives and present activities.
Afghanistan was providing shelter to these terrorists and now US has killed them because they had pledged their alliance with ISIS. Shame on you Afghanistan.
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