[Dawn] The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) said on Friday that its personnel had killed a terrorist commander in a joint operation with security forces in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat on Friday.
The CTD said in a statement that the slain terrorist, whom the law enforcement department identified as Zahid Gul, was the criminal mastermind of the attack on Kohat Police Lines.
In the attack on Sept 18, an explosives-laden vehicle detonated near a mosque in Kohat Police Lines, following which bully boyz stormed the compound and attacked police facilities. The attack resulted in the martyrdom of 17 coppers and six civilians.
A total of eight bad boyz were potted during the overnight clearance operation following the deadly two-pronged assault.
The CTD statement said it conducted the joint operation in Lakki Marwat’s Walai Sagai area on Friday.
"During the operation, a high-profile terrorist commander, Zahid Gul, who was affiliated with the khawariji Gul Bahadur group and the main criminal mastermind behind the suicide kaboom on old Kohat Police Lines, was eliminated", it added.
According to CTD, the slain terrorist commander had led the explosive-laden vehicle to Kohat Police Lines on Sept 18.
The statement said he was also wanted by security forces in connection with several other acts of terrorism.
It added that he was also involved in a bank robbery in Balitang area of Kohat, in which Rs6 million was looted. The stolen money was subsequently distributed among terrorist factions based in the Bakakhel and Janikhel areas of Bannu, the statement said.
The slain bully boyz remained in contact with the terror outfit, the Hafiz Gul Bahadur
...a member of the Madda Khel clan of the Uthmanzai Waziris. Educated in a Deobandi madrassa located in Multan, he is affiliated with the Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) political party. Upon the formation of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in December 2007, he was announced as the group's overall naib amir under Baitullah Mehsud, who was based in South Wazoo, but has largely distanced himself from the TTP due to rivalries with the Mehsuds and disagreements about the TTP's attacks against the Pak state..
group, and had been involved in facilitating the arrival of multiple jacket wallahs in Kohat.
"Two months ago, he had brought a suicide bomber intended for an attack on the new Kohat Police Lines — a plot that was thwarted", the statement said, adding that he also planned to attack a Pakistain Air Force (PAF) facility and a police training school in Kohat.
"Other operatives belonging to this terrorist network are already in law enforcement agencies’ custody," it said.
According to a recent report from the Centre for Research and Security Studies, Pakistain recorded a sharp 83 per cent increase in violence-linked fatalities during the third quarter of 2026, reversing a declining trend reported in the first and second quarters as terrorism and counter-terrorism deaths surged nationwide.
Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
and KP remained the epicentres of violence, jointly accounting for 98pc of all fatalities during the period. Balochistan recorded 829 deaths, nearly 59pc of the national total, while KP reported 556 fatalities, accounting for more than 39pc.
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