LANDI KOTAL, Jan 11: An important commander of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency on Wednesday, sources said.

They said that the masked men tried to abduct Taliban commander Rafiq alias Akhlaq in Maidan-Qambarkhel area but he was killed when he resisted them.

Rafiq, a key commander of Taliban in Tirah, was an aide to slain militant leader Adnan Afridi. Mr Afridi was murdered by unidentified gunmen in October 2010 in Rawalpindi.

Sources said that Taliban top command had assigned Rafiq with responsibilities related to Khyber and Orakzai agencies. Reason behind his killing could not be ascertained immediately as nobody claimed responsibility for his murder.

Meanwhile, two more persons, critically injured in a car bomb blast in Jamrud on Tuesday, died of their wounds in hospital on Wednesday. They were unidentified as Mohammadullah Zakhakhel and Khan Gul Kukikhel. They were laid to rest in their ancestral graveyards. The death toll in the car blast reached 32 while 25 out of the total 76 injured were still stated to be in unstable condition.

The Jamrud bazaar remained partially closed on Wednesday. A large number of locals and non-locals continued to visit the site of the blast. Nobody has so far claimed responsibility for the terror act.

MNA Noorul Haq Qadri has strongly condemned the blast in a statement, saying perpetrator behind such acts are the enemies of humanity and can’t be called human beings.

He said that shedding the blood of innocent and poor human beings was neither a holy war nor a service to Islam. He said that he was deeply saddened by the loss of innocent lives.

The local chapter of Jamaat-i-Islami has also condemned the Jamrud blast and termed it a cowardly act.

In a statement, JI local chief Shah Faisal said that tribesmen were paying a heavy price for the government pro-America policy. The government was chopping its own arms by carrying out military operations in tribal areas, he added.