LAHORE - The disputed chief of outlawed TTP, Mullah Fazlullah and his close associates are most likely to be hunted down by Pak-Afghan joint efforts soon, as actions on this count have been accelerated to the full extent, it is reliably learnt.
Fazlullah’s gang had claimed the responsibility of the Peshawar Army Public School massacre, the most horrific terror incident in the history of Pakistan and world.
Highly-placed contacts close to the security establishment told The Nation on Wednesday that special counter terror teams attached with the state’s premier secret services have stepped up efforts to the maximum by getting time-to-time assistance of their Afghan counterparts to nail down Fazalullah and key members of his group.
They informed that the security services have provided some concrete actionable information to their counterparts on the other side of the Durand Line about the Fazlullah’s network of terror. They claimed that both neighbours would launch efforts to use their contacts among the Afghan Taliban to isolate Fazlullah and his band of killers in a bid to hunt them down.
They added that Afghan security services have spotted some recent movements of Mullah Umar in the province of Nangarhar and Kunar but Pakistani secret services believe that he is in Kunar.
The contacts informed that secret services have pinned down a link of couriers of Mullah Umar network, which divulged information about his locations in Afghanistan, while the most strong intelligence information suggests that he is in Kunar.
Interior department officials confirming the developments told this correspondent that the hunt for Fazlullah and his accomplices would be launched soon. However, they declined to share the information about the tentative dates for hunt. Pak-Afghan joint efforts to neutralise the terror networks have been agreed between the two sides during the recent visit of Afghan President to Pakistan. Fazlullah has been marked as the ‘number-1 target’; however, his top associates are also on the list of which some belong to the deadly breed of foreign militants of Tajik, Uzbek and Turkmenistan origin.
Fazalullah, nicknamed “Mullah Radio” became the TTP chief after the killing of Hakimullah Mehsud in a drone strike in November 2013 while hiding in the bordering area of Pakistan with Afghanistan. He escaped to Afghanistan in an injured condition during military operation in Swat where he was the TTP chief of the valley.
However, Fazlullah was never accepted as chief by the entire TTP, which was founded by the Mehsud tribe and remained under the tight grip of this tribe until the death of Hakimullah Mehsud. Fissures emerged among the TTP shortly after the command of Fazalullah and fierce gun battles started between his supporting and opposed factions in South Waziristan.