PESHAWAR: A key militant commander of the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the proscribed Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, Waleed Akbar, was killed and one of his accomplices injured on Wednesday during a police encounter in the Prova tehsil of Dera Ismail Khan.
The commander was killed in the encounter that ensued when militants attacked District Police Officer (DPO) Sadiq Baloch in the Chodwan area of Prova tehsil following which police repulsed the attack.
DPO has said the police was conducting a search operation when the militants led by Akbar ambushed their convoy in the Hari Mor area of Porva tehsil. Subsequently, Akbar was killed in the encounter.
Akbar had several charges on him, including planning suicide attacks on funeral processions and law enforcement agencies’ personnel.
The TTP commander was also allegedly involved in the killing of Shia community leaders and police personnel during the Ashura bombing near a Muharram procession in Dera Ismail Khan on November 25, 2012.
The D I Khan police had arrested Akbar along with four others allegedly involved in the Ashura bombing in Dera Ismail Khan during raids on January 2, 2013.
However, in July 2013, Akbar managed to flee during the Dera Ismail Khan jail break incident when dozens of heavily-armed Taliban insurgents had freed nearly 175 inmates, including 35 ‘high-profile militants’, during a brazen overnight attack on the central jail in 2013.
Other key commanders who had escaped included Abdul Hakeem, Haji Riaz (the TTP president for Dera Ismail Khan), Mansoor and Ahmed Bajauri, and a senior TTP leader from Pishta Kharra area in Peshawar.
