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KARACHI: Mangal Bagh, chief of a banned militant group Lashkar-e-Islami, has been killed in a roadside bomb attack in southern Afghanistan, the provincial governor confirmed today (Thursday).
Provincial governor Ziaulhaq Amarkhil, in a Tweet, said, “Mangal Bagh was killed along with two of his comrades in a roadside bomb blast in the Bandar Dara area of Achin district of Nangarhar this morning.”
“Bagh was involved in a number of terrorist activities in the area,” he added. Bagh’s LeI group has been affiliated with the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which is responsible for most terrorist violence in Pakistan.
د #لشکر اسلام ترهګریزې ډلې مشر منګل باغ نن له غرمې مخکې د #ننګرهار د اچين ولسوالۍ باندر درې څېړۍ کڅونه سيمه کې د خپلو دوو ملګرو سره د دوی له لوري د ځای پر ځای شوي ماين په چاودنه کې ووژل شو، منګل باغ په ياده سيمه کې په ګڼ شمېر ترهګريزو فعاليتونو کې لاس درلود. pic.twitter.com/OvHxXIiGql
— Ziaulhaq Amarkhil (@ZiaulhaqAmarkhi) January 28, 2021
Mangal Bagh, a truck cleaner-turned-warlord, hailed from Pakistan’s Khyber district. He had been living in Afghanistan for the past couple of years after the Pakistan Army launched operation Zarb-e-Azb.
The confirmation from Ziaulhaq came shortly after Pakistan’s private Pashto-language Khyber News broke the story. “Mangal Bagh was killed in a roadside bomb blast in front of his house in Achin district, Nangarhar province, around noon,” it added.
According to US State Department’s Reward for Peace, Mangal Bagh carried up to $3 million bounty on his head. “His group earns revenue from drug trafficking, smuggling, kidnapping, raids on NATO convoys, and taxes on transit trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan,” it adds.
“Bagh has led Lashkar-e-Islam since 2006 and has routinely shifted alliances to protect illicit revenue streams while enforcing an extreme version of Deobandi Islam in the areas of eastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan that he controls, particularly Nangarhar province, Afghanistan,” it says.
