US drone attack kills 4 terrorists including Pakistani Taliban's commander

Islamabad: Four terrorists including Sajna Mehsud, the leader of the ‘Mehsud Group’ of the ‘Tehrik-i-Taliban’ and his nephew were killed in the US drone attack. The United States had declared Sajna a terrorist in 2014. This is the third US drone attack in Pakistan. The locals said that the terrorists killed in the attack were affiliated to the ‘Haqqani Network’.

During the Thursday attack, in the Margha region of Waziristan, the US drone fired two missiles. They targeted a car and a house. Four terrorists were killed in this drone attack. The leader of the ‘Mehsud Group’ of the ‘Tehrik-i-Taliban’, Sajna Mehsud aka Khalid Sajna aka Khan Syed was said to be killed in this attack. He was known as the Chief of the Taliban in South Waziristan region of Pakistan. ‘Maulvi Khatir’, the nephew and the successor of Sajna was also killed in the attack. This is believed to be a major shock for the Taliban.

Sajna Mehsud was declared as the Deputy Chief of ‘Terik-i-Taliban’ and Amir of Waziristan, in 2016. Tehrik-i-Taliban split within a year after that and in 2017 Sajna Mehsud established his own ‘Mehsud Group’. Attack on the Karachi Naval Base and the plot to get 400 terrorists released from the prison at Bannu in the South Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province were carried out by him. The locals informed about the closeness of Sajna and Maulvi Khatir with the ‘Haqqani Group’. This increases the importance of the drone attack.

Since the last few weeks, the United States is demanding a strong action against terrorists from Pakistan. The United States had pulled up Pakistan, after the series of terror attacks by Taliban in Afghanistan. The United States carried out two drone attacks in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region in January, on the 17th and the 24th. Meanwhile, the terrorists of ‘Haqqani Group’ of Taliban is being protected by Pakistan. The demand from Afghanistan and the United States that the Haqqani group is carrying out terror attacks in Afghanistan and that Pakistan should act against them, has been turned down by Pakistan.

While the drone attacks are in the news, the demand by the Pakistani defence minister is noteworthy. If the United States does not want terror attacks, then it should fund the fencing between Pakistan and Afghanistan, demanded Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif.