Taliban-ISI eliminated TTP personnel

New Delhi: The killing of former Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesperson and personnel, Khalid Balti, whose body was found in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan on Monday, is being attributed to the first high ranking assassination of TTP leaders under a joint operation carried out by the Afghan Taliban and Pakistan intelligence agency, the ISI.
Balti’s body, which was recovered from Momand Dara district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan bore a bullet injury to his head, which was most likely inflicted after his death. The cause of his death, sources aware of the development said, was due to a blow on his upper body caused by a sharp weapon like a machete or an axe. Momand Dara is considered to be a stronghold of the Afghan Taliban and no such killing, especially of a senior TTP official, can take place without the explicit or implicit permission of the Taliban.
The 45-year-old Balti, who served as the spokesperson between 2011 and 2015, had gone missing after meeting a Taliban commander based in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. His body was discovered two days later.
The TTP, while confirming his death, stated that it would be “avenged”.
According to sources on the ground, the Afghan Taliban government in Kabul has given complete freedom to ISI to operate in the region bordering the Durand Line, as a result of which, TTP commanders and cadre are being abducted, tortured, and in some cases, as happened in the case of Balti, killed. Three independent sources on the ground claimed that the killing of Balti was carried out by the ISI.
Another TTP commander, sources said, who goes by the name of Mansur, was arrested by the Afghan Taliban in the last week of December 2021 from Khost province on the charge that his associates were “active” in Pakistan.
All such anti-TTP operations are being carried out by the cadre of the Haqqani network and cadre owing allegiance to another Afghan Taliban commander, Maulvi Kabir.
Sources told The Sunday Guardian that apart from carrying out joint operations with the Afghan Taliban, the ISI is now influencing tribal elder groups and prominent local voices, through money and other means, who wield influence in the border areas, so that they can instigate the local population to socially boycott the TTP cadre and commanders.
One such politician, who is on the radar of the ISI, is Faridoon Momand, a Nangarhar based politician who has represented the Nangarhar province in the 15th and 16th terms of the House of Representatives.
As per TTP functionaries, Khalid Balti was born in Gilgit-Baltistan province of Pakistan and taught at a madrassa in Karachi before joining the TTP.