PESHAWAR: Security forces claimed to have killed a close associate of terrorist commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur in an operation in North Waziristan on Friday.

A statement by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said an intelligence-based operation was conducted on the reported presence of terrorists in the area.

Following an intense exchange of fire with security forces, one of the terrorists, whom the ISPR identified as Razzaq, was gunned down.

The deceased terrorist was the alleged facilitator of a suicide attack in North Waziristan in May where seven sec­urity personnel, inc­luding two officers, embraced martyrdom.

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A group affiliated with Hafiz Gul Bahadur had claimed responsibility for the attack.

The ISPR added that Razzaq was also involved in the targeted killing of Malik Sher Muhammad, grandson of Faqir of Ippi, who was gunned down in his car along with his companions in January 2023.

A sanitisation operation was being conducted to eliminate any other terrorist found in the area, the ISPR said.

The killing of an alleged associate of Hafiz Gul Bahadur came days after Pakistan blamed the terrorist commander for the attack on the Bannu cantonment in which eight soldiers embraced martyrdom.

“The heinous act of terrorism has been undertaken by the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, which operates from Afgha­nistan and has used Afghan soil to orchestrate acts of terrorism inside Pakistan in the past as well,” the ISPR had said in a statement after the attack.

Hafiz Gul Bahadur was previously a government contractor and a “good Taliban-turned-militant leader” whose outfit is now the strongest militant group in North Waziristan.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2024