High-profile militant wanted by Pakistan killed in Afghanistan’s Kandahar — official

A Taliban fighter stands guard along a road in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on February 28, 2022. (AFP/File)

• Abdul Wahab Larak merged his faction of outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi with Pakistani Taliban in Aug 2020 
• The militant had remained part of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami that fought Soviet forces in Afghanistan

KARACHI: A high-profile militant, who was associated with the Pakistani Taliban and appointed the group’s chief in the southern Pakistani province of Sindh, was killed by his own guard in Afghanistan’s Kandahar city earlier this week, a Pakistani counterterrorism official said on Friday. 
Abdul Wahab Larak, who was known as Molvi Khush Muhammad Sindhi in militant circles, had worked for the outlawed Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI), a militant outfit founded in 1980 to fight the Soviet forces in Afghanistan. Larak later joined Usman Saifullah Kurd group of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) sectarian militant outfit, which has claimed several high-profile bombings in Pakistan. He became chief of the LeJ faction after the killing of Kurd in 2015. 
In August 2020, Larak merged his faction of the LeJ with the Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is a separate movement from the Afghan Taliban and has fought for years to overthrow the government in Islamabad and rule with its own brand of the Islamic law. He was subsequently appointed the Sindh chief of the TTP. 
“Abdul Wahab Larak was killed by his own guard in Kandahar on March 23,” the Pakistani counterterrorism official told Arab News on the condition of anonymity. 
“It’s hundred percent confirmed that Larak has been killed. It’s a big blow to the TTP that wanted to strengthen the Sindh chapter of the organization through him,” said the official, who also shared photographs of the deceased militant. 
In August 2020, the TTP had announced that Usman Saifullah Kurd group of the LeJ, working under the leadership of Molvi Khush Muhammad Sindhi, had been merged with the Pakistani Taliban. 
“And promised to work for the establishment of the Islamic system in Pakistan under the flag of Tehreek [TTP] by pledging allegiance on the hands of Tehreek’s Amir Mufti Noor Wali alias Abu Mansoor Asim,” the TTP said in a statement at the time. 
According to the Sindh police’s Red Book, which profiles wanted criminals and militants, 52-year-old Larak was fluent in speaking Urdu, Sindhi, Pashto and Arabic languages. 
The militant, who also went by the alias of Hakeem Ali Jan, hailed from Khanpur town of Sindh’s Shikarpur, a district known for the killings of and bomb attacks on minority sects. In January 2015, a powerful blast at an imambargah killed 53 people and wounded 57 others in Shikarpur. 
Asked if Larak had a role in it, the counterterrorism official said it was not confirmed yet, but the deceased militant had been involved in multiple killings and bomb attacks. 
“Larak was involved in targeted killings of and attacks on Shia religious minority,” he added.