A senior commander of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Rahimullah, also known as Shahid Umar, was killed in a targeted attack by unidentified gunmen in Shringal, Kunar province, Afghanistan.
While neither the Afghan nor Pakistani governments have issued an official statement on the incident, the TTP confirmed the death of their commander. Afghan security sources reported that Shahid Umar, along with other militants, was returning to his hideout after a lunch hosted by an Afghan Taliban official when he was shot dead.
Pakistani security officials revealed that a bounty of Rs10 million had been placed on Umar’s head. He had been a senior commander, spending eight years in Bagram prison before being released by the Afghan Taliban. Umar had also served as the shadow governor of TTP in Dera Ismail Khan and was a member of its military commission.
While there were reports of other TTP commanders being killed, these could not be confirmed at the time of this report. The death of Umar marks a significant blow to the TTP and is an embarrassment for both the group and their Afghan Taliban hosts, who have consistently denied the presence of TTP militants in Afghanistan, despite evidence linking the group to cross-border terrorism.
