Observer Report Karachi
The chief of a banned militant group blamed for a deadly reign of terror in the Khyber district of Pakistan has been killed in a roadside bomb attack in southern Afghanistan, the provincial governor confirmed on Thursday.
“Mangal Bagh, the leader of Lashkar-e-Islam terrorist group, was killed along with two of his comrades in a roadside bomb blast in the Bandar Dara area of Achin district of Nangarhar Yhursday morning,” provincial governor Ziaulhaq Amarkhil wrote on his verified Twitter handle.
Bagh was involved in a number of terrorist activities in the area, said Ziaulhaq, who is also senior advisor to President Ashraf Ghani on political and public affairs. Bagh’s LeI group has been affiliated with the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan which is responsible for most terrorist violence in Pakistan. Mangal Bagh, a truck cleaner-turned-warlord, held sway over Bara tehsil of the erstwhile Khyber Agency until June 2008 when his armed vigilantes were routed in a security operation. Since then he has been on the run, mostly operating from southern Afghanistan where his loyalists have found safe havens.
