Dost Muhammad alias Asad Afridi, an important commander of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Jamaatul Ahrar faction, was killed in an airstrike in Lalpura, Afghanistan, it emerged on Thursday.
Afridi was the TTP’s former shadow governor of the Dera Ismail Khan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan.
Despite the TTP’s denial, the killed leader had taken credit for a number of operations, including the one that targeted a Pakistani military post in Balochistan’s Zhob area last month.
Afridi allegedly asserted that the Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan (TJP), which the TTP claimed was accountable for the garrison attack, was merely a front for the TTP and didn’t exist in reality.
In addition, he berated the TTP’s central shura for dismissing him from his position as acting governor of the DI Khan District.
The TTP and its Jamaatul Ahrar faction – both proscribed militant organizations in Pakistan – had developed differences following the Zhob attack and led to Afridi’s removal as shadow governor. The TTP had warned Afridi over his statements regarding the attack.
