Pakistan: Lashkar-e-Islam terrorist group head Mangal Bagh killed in Afghanistan

Pakistan's Lashkar-e-Islam terrorist group head Mangal Bagh was killed in a bomb blast in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province on Thursday.

Bagh was killed in blast in the Bandari locality of Achin district, Pajhwok Afghan News reported.

"Mangal Bagh, the leader of Lashkar-e-Islam terrorist group, was killed along with two of his comrades in a roadside bomb blast in the Bandar Dara area of Achin district of Nangarhar this morning," provincial governor Ziaulhaq Amarkhil tweeted.

Bagh was reported dead several times, however, he continued to reappear, The Express Tribune reported. According to US State Department, Mangal Bagh carried up to USD 3 million of bounty on his head.

"Mangal Bagh is the leader of Lashkar-e-Islam, a militant faction affiliated with Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). His group earns revenue from drug trafficking, smuggling, kidnapping, raids on NATO convoys, and taxes on transit trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan," State Department's Reward for Peace data said.

According to the State Department, Bagh has led Lashkar-e-Islam since 2006 and has routinely shifted alliances to protect illicit revenue streams while enforcing an extreme version of Deobandi Islam in the areas of eastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan that he controls, particularly Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan.

Born in Khyber Agency, Pakistan, he is believed to be in his mid-forties. Bagh is a member of the Afridi tribe. He studied at a madrasa for several years and later fought alongside militant groups in Afghanistan.

(ANI)