Pakistani Taliban top leader said killed

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A top leader of the Pakistani Taliban militia was reported killed Sunday in southeastern Afghanistan, potentially dealing a serious blow to peace talks being negotiated between the extremist group and Pakistani officials with assistance from senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan.

An aide to the Pakistani militia leader, known as Omar Khalid Khorasani, said in a tweet Monday morning that he died in a bomb blast in southeastern Afghanistan. "He is no more with us," said the aide, Ehsanullah Ehsan. "May Allah ... give him the highest place in Jannah," or heaven.

The reported death of Khorasani followed months of talks that began shortly after Afghan Taliban forces took power in Kabul one year ago. Numerous delegations have met in Afghanistan since then to help end the years-long conflict between Pakistani forces and hard-line Pakistani militants.

There were conflicting reports Monday on the circumstances of Khorasani's death and the precise location in southeastern Afghanistan where it occurred.

Ehsan told reporters that two other Pakistani Taliban leaders who were traveling with Khorasani, Mufti Hassan Swati and Hafiz Dawlat Khan, were killed in the same incident. In a brief online conversation via Telegram, he said all three were killed by an "IED blast," referring to an improvised explosive device or roadside bomb, but he did not specify where it happened or who was responsible. He said Khorasani was "leading the committee for peace negotiations."

In the capital, Kabul, Taliban authorities have been struggling to contain a rash of terrorist attacks on the Shiite Muslim community over the past week. The attacks, mostly claimed by Islamic State militants, have sown panic in the Shiite Muslim community as it observes a period of religious mourning for a revered figure: Imam Hussein, a grandson of the prophet Muhammad slain in battle in the 7th century.

Taliban officials had promised to protect the community's 10-day mourning tradition, which was due to culminate Monday with processions and funereal music, bringing tens of thousands of people into the streets. But after the third attack Saturday, a bombing in the heart of the Shiite community, officials virtually shut down the activities for fear of further violence.

On Monday morning, police cut off the area to all outside traffic and banned all local traffic. Roadside displays of brilliant religious flags and banners were taken down, and security forces in armored vehicles, some mounted with machine guns, continually patrolled the near-empty streets.

Taliban officials also cut off local cellphone signals across Kabul on Monday to prevent remote-controlled bombings. Two of the recent terrorist attacks involved bombs that were hidden in ordinary objects in separate crowded areas of the Shiite community and were detonated remotely.

Taliban officials have been struggling for months to respond to the Shiite community's concerns about continuing attacks from the Islamic State, an extremist Sunni Muslim group that has repeatedly staged attacks in Kabul and other cities since the Taliban took power last August. In April, it bombed a large high school and a crowded shrine.

In an especially brazen attack Wednesday, the militants commandeered an apartment building and started shooting at a Taliban security patrol after reportedly taking some residents hostage. It took government forces nearly seven hours to quell the assault.

In attempting to prevent worse violence, Taliban authorities face an awkward balance between protecting local Shiites -- a group they once persecuted -- and allowing them the freedom they have long demanded to hold religious events. The Taliban forbade those same events when the Sunni Muslim group held power from 1996 to 2001.

Information for this article was contributed by Haq Nawaz Khan of The Washington Post.

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