Pakistan Taliban Chief Who Shot Malala Killed In US Drone Strike

Mullah Fazlullah, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader, accused of shooting activist Malala Yousafzai was killed by a United States drone strike June 13 close to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, a U.S. military official confirmed to Voice of America.

"U.S. forces conducted a counterterrorism strike June 13 in Kunar province, close to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which targeted a senior leader of a designated terrorist organization," army Lt. Col. Martin O'Donnell, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan said.

He was reportedly traveling in a vehicle with four other commanders when the strike took place, Pakistani daily the Express Tribune reported.

“A US drone strike in Afghanistan’s northeastern Kunar province has killed the leader of the TTP,” Mohammad Radmanish, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense spokesperson, told CNN.

"US Forces-Afghanistan and NATO-led Resolute Support forces continue to adhere to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan's unilateral ceasefire with the Afghan Taliban, announced by ... Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, which began on the 27th day of Ramadan,” a statement from U.S. Forces-Afghanistan said claiming the strike did not put the ceasefire order by President Ashraf Ghani into risk, CNN reported.

“As previously stated, the ceasefire does not include US counterterrorism efforts against IS-K, al Qaeda, and other regional and international terrorist groups, or the inherent right of US and international forces to defend ourselves if attacked,” the statement added.

Mullah Fazlullah, also known as Mullah Radio, was named the chief of Taliban after the death of Hakimullah Mehsud in November 2013.

He earned the name Mullah Radio after delivering sermons on his own FM station in Pakistan's Swat Valley in 2006 that won him a large audience of female admirers who also encouraged their husbands to join jihad.

In 2012, Taliban made an unsuccessful attempt under Fazlullah’s scrutiny to kill Yousafzai for writing about the terrifying life under the terror outfit.

U.S. designated him as a global terrorist and also tried killing him four times since 2010.

"Fazlullah has been dead and then not dead so many times before. Healthy skepticism is in order," Michael Kugelman, a senior associate at Washington DC tweeted.

Mullah Radio directed the December 2014 attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar that killed 151 people, including more than 130 children.

He also directed the beheading of 17 soldiers in June 2012 and several other attacks on Pakistan's military.

Fazlullah, born Fazal Hayat, studied at an Islamic religious school and worked as a chairlift operator before joining Movement for the Enforcement of the Sharia of Mohammad and was also once an avid cricket fan.

"Many of our family members went to convince him but he did not listen to anyone. He was so blinded by his passion for Islam as he saw it that he even killed two of our uncles in 2007," his cousin said in 2014, reported Indian daily Times of India.