Gunmen kill TTP commander in South Waziristan

Taliban — File Photo

PESHAWAR: Gunmen shot dead a Pakistan Taliban commander linked to an attack on a volleyball tournament in northwest Pakistan in 2010 that killed almost 100 people, officials said on Wednesday.
Maulana Ashraf Marwat was killed in Pakistan’s Shaktoi area of South Waziristan near the Afghan border on Tuesday, said mourners at his funeral.
The identity of the gunmen was unclear.
Police blamed Marwat for helping organise the deadly 2010 attack on the Shah Hasankhel village in the northwestern Lakki Marwat district in which a truck packed with explosives was detonated at a volley ball tournament.
Marwat was linked to the Pakistani Taliban, said a leader of a local pro-government militia.
The police also say Marwat killed another Taliban commander, Maulana Iftikhar Marwat, reportedly because of his association with the Afghan Taliban.
The dispute between the two men highlighted tensions within the insurgency.
Iftikhar Marwat had apparently urged militants from his native Lakki Marwat district to focus their fight on foreign forces in Afghanistan instead of against Pakistani security forces.
That angered Ashraf Maulana, who wanted to continue attacks in Pakistan.