Top Punjabi Taliban commander shot dead in NW Pakistan

Taliban commander Usman Punjabi and five other militants were killed at a school in Dandey Darpa Khel area yesterday, local residents said. The militants had been living at the school for some time.

Sources said militants from another Taliban faction were behind the killings as they were opposed to the activities of the Punjabi Taliban led by Usman. There were also rumours that militants from the Mehsud tribe or the Hafiz Gul Bahadar group could have been involved in the incident.

There was no official word on the killings.Usman is believed to have been behind the kidnapping of Asad Qureshi, a British journalist of Pakistani origin and former intelligence officials Colonel Imam alias Sultan Amir Tarar and Khalid Khwaja.
Khwaja was gunned down by his abductors earlier this year.