The mystery of three high-ranking TTP deaths on Afghan soil
https://arab.news/rd3dr
The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the umbrella militant group with various other groups along the Pak-Afghan border in its fold, has lost many of its important leaders since it first emerged in 2007. But the assassination of three of its well-known operatives in a single week on Afghan soil last month was a huge setback-- and a mystery.
All three men were killed in mysterious circumstances on Jan. 31 in Afghanistan, where the fighters had sought refuge after fleeing from military operations undertaken by Pakistan’s security forces since 2009.
No claim of responsibility was made for the three killings, but this isn’t surprising as the assassins in such cases prefer to remain unidentified.
Sheikh Khalid Haqqani, once deputy chief of the TTP and member of the group’s top policy-making Rahbari Shoura (Leadership Council), as well as Qari Saif Younas aka Saifullah Peshawari, a military commander, were found dead near Kabul’s landmark Intercontinental Hotel in circumstances that are still unclear. An intriguing aspect of the incident was the report the men were carrying fake IDs.
Khalid Haqqani was among the TTP’s leading religious clerics and had been issuing fatwas (decrees), including one against journalists in 2014, to justify terrorist attacks carried out by its fighters.
He was linked to the Dec. 2014 terrorist attack on an army-run school in Peshawar in which 147 people, including 132 schoolchildren, were slain. The TTP had claimed responsibility for this most horrendous attack, which caused outrage worldwide, turned public opinion decisively against the militants and forced Pakistan to devise a 20-point ‘National Action Plan’ to undertake comprehensive counter-terrorism measures.
Their murders in Afghanistan gives credence to the Pakistani claim that militants fighting and plotting against the country have found sanctuaries on Afghan soil.
Rahimullah Yusufzai
Within a week of the two killings, a TTP factional head, Shahryar Mehsud, was also killed in a blast that targeted his vehicle in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province near the border with Pakistan. He had been tipped in the past as the prospective head of the TTP, but couldn’t make the post in the presence of more powerful candidates.
All three were important in their own right and their deaths could mean a continuing decline in the strength of the TTP.
The TTP, which was founded by Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistani militant eliminated in a US drone strike in August 2009 in Pakistan’s South Waziristan district, has been steadily losing its top leaders.
Some were killed by the Pakistani military, but most lost their lives in US drone strikes in the tribal areas, which were merged with adjoining Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in May 2018. The next TTP head, Hakimullah Mehsud too was killed in a US drone attack in North Waziristan in November 2001. His successor Maulana Fazlullah was assassinated in a US drone assault in June 2018 in Afghanistan.
The new TTP leader, Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud, is alive but has to change places frequently to survive. Pakistani officials allege he is based in Afghanistan.
The TTP, which over the years has splintered into factions, took its time before confirming the deaths of Khalid Haqqani and Saifullah Peshawari after their bodies were found in Kabul.
It was a difficult decision as the TTP, a group of Pakistani militants, could have faced awkward questions as to why it felt the need to send its two leading operatives to Kabul and whether it had developed links with the Afghan government due to its compulsion to use Afghanistan’s territory as a sanctuary.
There have been allegations some intelligence agencies maintain links with militant groups to use them for their own purposes.
Islamabad has long accused Afghan and Indian intelligence agencies of sponsoring Pakistani Taliban and Baloch militant groups to destabilize the country-- a charge denied by both. Kabul on its part has been alleging that Pakistan has provided safe havens to the Afghan Taliban and its affiliate Haqqani network to achieve its strategic objectives in Afghanistan. Islamabad vehemently denies the allegation as well.
TTP spokesman, Mohammad Khurasani, claimed that the fighters were on their way to Kabul to carry out an attack as part of the ‘jehad’ when they were engaged by ‘criminals in the pay of the US’ and that they died in combat. He was also quoted as saying that they clashed with Afghan forces. Khurasani denied media reports that the two TTP leaders were in Kabul for a secret meeting with Afghan government officials.
But neither the Afghan government nor the US commented on the deaths of the three TTP men in Afghanistan. In fact, every effort was made to keep the issue under wraps.
Still, their murders in Afghanistan gives credence to the Pakistani claim that militants fighting and plotting against the country have found sanctuaries on Afghan soil.
The fact that the TTP managed to subsequently get hold of the bodies of its slain leaders also raised eyebrows. It is also no secret that some of the Afghan Taliban members, including its head Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor, were assassinated in US drone strikes in Pakistan.
As the TTP is an entirely separate militant group to the Afghan Taliban, the assassination of Khalid Haqqani, Saifullah Peshawari and Shahryar Mehsud in Afghanistan will have no impact on the Taliban-US peace talks that are now close to fruition with the expected signing of a deal later this month.
*Rahimullah Yusufzai is a senior political and security analyst in Pakistan. He was the first to interview Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar and twice interviewed Osama Bin Laden in 1998. Twitter: @rahimyusufzai1
