Senior Afghan Taliban commander shot dead in Pakistan

Unidentified gunmen have shot dead a senior Afghan Taliban commander in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, Afghan intelligence sources say.

Rahmatullah Nabil, the head of the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS), said on Friday that Mawlavi Mir Ahmad Gul was gunned down in the Spina Wari district of Peshawar.

Nabil provided no further details regarding the circumstances surrounding his death.  The Afghan intelligence chief noted that Gul was involved in the killing of hundreds of Afghans in recent years.

Sources say Gul is known to have been Taliban’s shadow provincial governor for Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province.
Senior Afghan officials have frequently blamed elements within Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for harboring Taliban militants, who have waged a nearly 14-year war against Afghan and foreign forces in the country.

This is while Islamabad blames Kabul for giving refuge to militants on its side of the border.

Under the pretext of the so-called war on terror, the US and its NATO allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001. However, Afghanistan continues to reel from insecurity and instability several years after the US-led campaign ousted the Taliban militants.

The US announced an end to its combat mission in Afghanistan on December 31, 2014, but at least 13,500 foreign troops, mainly Americans, have remained in the country.