Khorasani confirmed dead in US drone strike

PESHAWAR: The chief of an offshoot of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has been killed in a US drone strike, a spokesman for the group said on Thursday.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) had claimed responsibility for many deadly attacks in the country, including a suicide bombing in a park in Lahore on Easter Sunday last year that killed 75 people including many children.

“Chief of our Jamaat-ul-Ahrar Umar Khalid Khorasani, who sustained serious injuries in a recent US drone strike in Afghanistan’s Paktia province, succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday evening,” JuA spokesman Asad Mansoor told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.