Peshawar school attack facilitator killed

A militant commander who facilitated the Peshawar school attack was killed by security forces in Khyber Agency late Thursday night.

The militant commander, Saddam, was also said to be the mastermind behind the 2013 attack on a polio team in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in which 11 security personnel were killed, Dawn online reported Friday.

A Khyber Agency official said at a press conference in Peshawar that Saddam was killed late Thursday night in Jamrud area, and added that one of his accomplices was arrested.

He said that as a key operational commander of the Tariq Gedar group of Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP), Saddam had facilitated the Taliban gunmen who attacked the Army Public School. The attack resulted in the loss of 148 lives, including 132 children.

Saddam was also accused for killing several tribal elders, the official said.

"Operation Khyber One" launched in October, has been extended to other areas of Khyber Agency and militants are being hunted down, he added.