DIRECTORY:
The fate of murdered Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) deputy leader Mufti Hazrat Deroji, also known as Qari Amjad, continued for the second consecutive day at the Mayar Jandool Main Mosque on Saturday. A large number of relatives, local residents and friends from surrounding villages participated in the prayers.
According to family sources, the condolence gatherings will continue for three days in accordance with local customs and traditions. Qari Amjad, real name Amjad Ali, was killed along with three associates during an intelligence operation near the Pakistan-Afghan border in Bajaur on Wednesday night.
Military authorities handed over his body to his family on Thursday. The next morning, his remains were taken to his ancestral village, Mayar Jandool, where a funeral prayer was offered at the central cemetery. The funeral, attended by hundreds of people, was held openly with the permission of security forces – an unusual move for a senior TTP leader, as such gatherings are normally restricted after the deaths of terrorist commanders.
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Family sources said Qari Amjad was the son of Muhammad Siddiq Akhunzada, a local schoolteacher who died in 2001. Qari Amjad received his early religious education at a madrassa in Shahpur, Shangla, and later attended a Mufti course in Karachi. He and his younger brother Wajid Ali joined the banned TTP in 2007. Wajid was killed in 2010 during a clash with security forces in Samar Bagh after planting an IED.
Known within the TTP as Mufti Mazahim and Hazrat Mufti Deeroji, Qari Amjad married a woman from Khanpur Tekeni in 2007 and had two sons and four daughters. The family then moved to Afghanistan, where he lived for several years. His eldest son, now 18, studies in a religious seminary in Afghanistan, where the rest of the family still resides.
The fate of Qari Amjad Ali is underway at the Mayar Jandool Mosque in Dir. Photo: Express
Two of his half-brothers, Abdul Majid and Muhammad Farooq, live in Mayar Jandool. Majid works as a school teacher. Two uncles, Muhammad Saleem and Ghulam Nasir Akhunzada, were arrested by security forces in 2010 after Qari Amjad’s emergence as a TTP figure and were detained for 18 months at the Blambat Scout Fort before being exonerated.
Sources said Qari Amjad rose through the ranks during his stay in Afghanistan to become the deputy of current TTP chief Noor Wali Mehsud. In 2022, the United States designated him as a global terrorist, accusing him of cross-border attacks and terrorist operations, while Pakistan had put a price of Rs 5 million on his head.
In a statement posted on social media, the TTP called his assassination a “betrayal,” while Pakistani authorities called it the result of a precise intelligence-driven operation.
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Since then, conflicting reports have emerged, with some claims suggesting he was killed inside Pakistan rather than abroad.
The villagers have great respect for him because, thanks to his presence, the TTP spared his Mayar village and did not interfere with the residents compared to the rest of the district where people were frequently kidnapped and killed.
Sources said he also worked as a guard at the same mosque where his fate is currently being offered. His mother died during his childhood, after which his father sent him to a religious seminary for education where he became radicalized. His clan is known as the Akunzada family and is considered educated by local standards.
His family members believed that he was lured to come to Pakistan and then killed, otherwise he would become a difficult target.
His first wife is a resident of Lower Dir while his second wife is a Yamni women. His eldest son is also married and settled in Afghanistan.
Pakistani tensions
After years of relative decline, terrorist activities are on the rise again since the fall of Kabul in 2021 and the return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Terrorist groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), have become emboldened, posing a renewed threat to national security.
In the wake of continuous terrorist attacks from across the border, security forces have launched a relentless anti-terrorism campaign under the vision of Azm-e-Istihkam. Approved by the Supreme Federal Committee on the National Action Plan, the operation continued at full speed to eliminate the threat of foreign sponsored and supported terrorism from the country.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have deteriorated, with terrorist activities increasing again since the fall of Kabul in 2021 and the Taliban’s return to power. Terrorist groups, including Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), have become emboldened, posing a renewed threat to national security.
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Pakistan has raised concerns that Afghanistan continues to harbor the proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and other militant groups, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif warning that any aggression across the border would be seen as “crossing Pakistan’s red line”.
The presence of militant groups in Afghanistan under Taliban rule remains a major source of regional tensions. Countries including Russia, Iran and China – despite maintaining diplomatic relations with the Taliban – have repeatedly urged the group to prevent Afghan soil from being used for cross-border attacks. Militant strikes against security forces persisted, prompting the Pakistani military to take decisive action and target terrorist strongholds across the border.
Tensions escalated last month when clashes erupted after Taliban forces opened fire without provocation at several locations in KP and Balochistan. The Pakistani army responded quickly, destroying several Afghan posts and killing dozens of Afghan soldiers and militants.
A ceasefire was brokered late last month during talks hosted by Qatar, but tensions remain as the two sides hold dialogues again in Istanbul, while border trade remains suspended.
After six days of high-level talks in Istanbul, Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban reached an interim agreement this week to prevent the use of Afghan soil for terrorist activities against Pakistan and take decisive action against Indian-backed militant groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).
