Former TTP commander, who led a GHQ death squad, critically injured

New Delhi: A former high-ranking commander of Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) Pakistan, who is the younger brother of former TTP chief, Hakimullah Mehsud and was working for Pakistan’s army, has been critically injured after he was shot in a clash with TTP cadre earlier this week.
Ejaz Mehsud, the younger brother of Hakimullah had surrendered in front of the Pakistani army in June 2016 along with other senior TTP commanders after which he started working as an assassin for Pakistan’s Military Intelligence (MI) and was made the in-charge of a death squad. Earlier this week, Mehsud was caught in an ambush by TTP cadres in the Tank district of the Dera Ismail division, during which he sustained serious injuries.
After his surrender, according to sources present on the ground, Mehsud, on the condition of agreeing to lead a death squad whose targets were other TTP leaders, political entities, journalists, and members of civil society, was rehabilitated in the Waziristan region.
Ejaz’s brother, Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in November 2013.
Ejaz, sources aware of the matter told The Sunday Guardian, had executed the killing of Arif Wazir, a leader of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) on 1 May 2020 when he was attacked by unidentified armed men while he was travelling in a car near his house in Ghwakhwa village in Wanna, South Waziristan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. He was hit by three bullets, and died of his injuries the next day.
The Sunday Guardian’s email to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces, seeking their response on the matter generated no response.
In August 2020, former TTP spokesperson, Ehsanullah Ehsan, who too had surrendered in front of the Pakistan army in April 2017 before escaping from their safe house in January 2020, had told The Sunday Guardian that he too was asked to lead a death squad by the Pakistan military in return for a comfortable rehabilitation post his surrender, an ‘offer’ which he refused.
Ehsan had at that time told The Sunday Guardian that while he was in the protection of the army, he was shown a list of ‘targets’, mostly from Peshawar, Quetta, and Mardan districts which the Pakistan Army wanted to eliminate, many of them were Pashtuns from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The list also contained journalists and lawmakers. According to him, at that time, multiple other similar death squads were already working in other parts of Pakistan, mainly in the region of Balochistan, that were carrying out killings on the orders of the Pakistan Army.
These death squads were functioning under the direct control of Lieutenant General Asim Munir, who was heading the MI at the time. Munir later went on to become the chief of the ISI, a position in which he served from October 2018 to July 2019.