Report: Pakistani Taliban’s spokesman killed in Afghanistan
The Pakistani Taliban’s spokesman has reportedly been killed in Afghanistan after spending some eight years on the run from the Pakistani army’s crackdown on the group.
According to a report published on Monday, a senior security official identified the assassinated figure as Muhammad Khurasani who served as the spokesman for the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
The official, who declined to be named, disclosed the location of the assassination as Afghanistan’s northeastern Nangarhar province.
"We are in the process of gathering information from Afghanistan” about the incident, the source added, while Afghan officials in Nangarhar told AFP they were checking the reports.
No group or individual has so far claimed responsibility for the assassination, but the United States that withdrew from Afghanistan last August has not ruled out carrying out strikes on the Afghan soil.
Khurasani's death comes weeks after another senior Pakistan Taliban leader escaped unhurt from a suspected drone strike on a safe house in eastern Afghanistan.
The TTP was formed in 2007 and has ever since carried out numerous attacks throughout Pakistan.
Most of the group’s members, however, fled to Afghanistan after Pakistan launched a military operation against the outfit in 2014.
After the Afghan Taliban took control of Kabul last year, Pakistan began efforts to reach a political settlement with the TTP.
Islamabad announced late last year that it had entered a month-long truce with the TTP, facilitated by Afghanistan's Taliban.
The agreement expired, though, on December 9 after peace talks failed to make progress.
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