Omar Khalid

Omar Khalid (Urdu:عمر خالد), also known as Omar Khalid Khorasani was the commander of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Mohmand Agency. He was considered one of TTP's most effective and powerful leaders in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. His real name is Abdul Wali. He was ousted by Maulana Fazlullah for forming "dubious" organizations such as Junad-i-Hafza, Ahrar-ul-Hind and now the splinter group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (which he currently leads). Omar Khalid gained prominence in Mohmand during the summer of 2007 after seizing the shrine of a famous anti-colonialist fighter in the village of Ghazi Abad and renaming it Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), after the radical mosque in Islamabad whose followers had attempted to impose sharia in the Pakistani capital. In July 2008, Khalid became the dominant Taliban commander in Mohmand after defeating the Shah Khalid group (also known as Shah Sahib group), a rival pro-Taliban militant group associated with Lashkar-e-Toiba. He was involved in most deadly 2014 Peshawar school attack. On March 12, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar announced that it was rejoining the Pakistani Taliban. On 9 July 2016, he was killed in an US airstrike in eastern Nangarhar Province, along with four other militants.