Top al-Qaeda leader and head of Harkatul Jihad al-Islami (HJI), Ilyas Kashmiri, was killed in a US drone strike in South Wazoo on Friday, bigwigs said on Saturday."We have received reports of his death. But we are waiting for conclusive evidence to confirm that Kashmiri has been killed with nine other terrorists," a security official, who wished not to be named, told Daily Times.
A hand-written brief statement in Urdu-language from a purported front man of the HJI, distributed in Wana Bazaar on Saturday afternoon, confirmed that Kashmiri was killed.
"Harkatul Jihad al-Islami's 313 Brigade confirms that in Friday's drone attack at 11:15pm our commander-in-chief, Muhammad Ilyas Kashmiri, was martyred," the front man, Abu Hamzullah Kasher, said in the statement.
No one has heard of Kasher before and there is no independent confirmation of his claim.
"We heard that those killed were Punjabi and Kashmiri's presence at the site of the attack was talk of the town," a tribal elder with good contacts in the political administration said by phone from Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan. A US drone targeted a group of cut-throats in Ghwakhwa area, 20 kilometres south of Wana, at 11:15pm on Friday night, killing nine cut-throats and wounding four others.
No further details were available to ascertain what the HJI leader and the others were doing there.
"What is confirmed is that he (Kashmiri) was seen two days back at the site of the attack," the officials said. "Testimonies of the injured will clear the situation when they speak out," he added.
Ilyas Kashmiri is believed to having planned the deadly attack on Pakistain Navy's airbase PNS Mehran in Bloody Karachi on May 22. "We will certainly give the US a Dire Revenge™ful reply," added the HJI front man.