Pakistani Islamist Warlord Mangal Bagh Rumored Killed in Khyber
Pakistani police claimed that Mangal Bagh, the leader of a Taliban-linked terror group based in the tribal agency of Khyber, was killed during an operation there last weekend. The report is unconfirmed and a spokesman for the group denied Bagh was killed.
“The leader of the banned outfit is dead,” the chief of police in Peshawar told reporters in the city today, according to Pajhwok Afghan News. The police chief did not say how he knew Bagh was killed.
Mohammad Hussain, a spokesman for the terrorist leader, denied the reports of Bagh’s death, according to the news agency. Hussain said that Bagh is “alive and well,” Pajhwok reported.
Pakistani security forces launched a six-day-long operation from March 12-18 in the Tirah Valley in Khyber, a known stronghold of the Lashkar-e-Islam. The military claimed that 25 Lashkar-e-Islam fighters were killed during the operation. After the operation ended, the bodies of 14 people, whose faces were burned with acid, were found in nearby Bara, Pajhwok reported. Locals accused the Pakistani military of executing those killed.