One of the planners of a brazen terrorist assault on the military headquarters was killed in an intelligence-based operation in a southern district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday.
Ten terrorists, donning military fatigues, attacked the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi on Oct 10, 2009. An hour-long siege ensued that left over a dozen people, including nine soldiers, dead.
A Peshawar-based senior security official confirmed to The Express Tribune that Akbar Ali, aka Badi, was killed in an IBO in Gomal area on the fringes of Tank district and South Waziristan Agency. The area, also called Gomal Darra, stretches to Afghanistan.
“Security forces surrounded a compound where Akbar Ali was present along with other militants. They were asked to surrender, but instead of turning themselves in they opened fire on security forces,” the security official said. “In the ensuing gunfight, Akbar Ali was killed.”
Akbar Ali was one of the top commanders of the Shura-e-Mujahideen Waziristan and had expertise in training suicide bombers, security officials said. He was also involved in several attacks on security forces and installations.
Akbar Ali was part of the terrorist team that had mounted the GHQ attack. He was a close aide of Qari Hussain, the main trainers of suicide bombers in the country.
Security officials believe he was also involved in kidnapping engineers from Gomal Zam dam, killing of peace committee elders in Tank as well several other sectarian attacks in the country.
