Jamaat-ul-Ahrar chief killed in Afghanistan drone strike

PESHAWAR (Monitoring Desk): Umar Khalid Khurasani, chief of banned militant group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), has been killed in a drone attack in Afghanistan, on Wednesday.

On Tuesday it was reported that the JuA chief was critically injured in a drone attack.

The strike was conducted close to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Paktia on Tuesday. Khurasani, being critically injured in the attack, was moved to an undisclosed location.

The commander of the banned militant group hailed from Mohmand Agency – one of the seven agencies in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) – and goes by the alias Abdul Wali.

At least 31 people were killed in three drone strikes near the Pak-Afghan border in Afghanistan on Monday and Tuesday.

In July, Pakistan welcomed the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) decision to include JuA in the list of entities subject to travel bans, arms embargos and freezing of assets.

The JuA based in Nangarhar province of Afghanistan has been involved in a series of terrorist attacks inside Pakistan.

Pakistan had proscribed JuA in 2016.

Since 2014, when the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar first surfaced, it proved itself to be a lethal terrorist group, perpetrating some of the most brutal attacks in Pakistan.

The group has been involved in more than 100 terrorist attacks on Pakistani soil.