Will there be a claimant for the $3 million reward announced by the US for anyone providing information leading to the capture of the Pakistani militant commander Mangal Bagh?

It is unclear if information was provided to the US forces in Afghanistan for tracking down Mangal Bagh, one of the most wanted militants who was in his early 50s, in the eastern Nangarhar province where he was killed in a bomb explosion on Thursday. In fact, nobody knows if the US had a hand in eliminating him and it looks unlikely that it was involved. The Americans normally use drones or carry out bombings using warplanes to hit their enemy from the safety of the skies.

No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the attack that reportedly eliminated Mangal Bagh at the doorstep of his son’s house in Bandar Darra area in Achin district. This is not far from the place where the ISIS, or Daesh, was based before being evicted in sustained fighting. The US had also used the ‘mother of all bombs’ to hit an ISIS compound in this area.

The semi-literate Mangal Bagh, who studied at a madrassa before rising in the ranks to lead the Lashkar-i-Islami militant group, had evaded capture and death in the past, though it was a bit surprising as he was living and operating openly in Nangarhar’s Achin and Nazian districts for long and could have easily been targetted by US drones or Afghan government forces. He had distinctive features, long hair and bushy beard. He always wore a Chitrali woolen cap.

It is not known who tracked him down in the end and killed him. There were many who followed the news with scepticism as it wasn’t the first time that his killing was announced.

Apart from the Americans who publicised the reward for his capture as he and his men had reportedly been involved in attacks on NATO supply convoys passing through Peshawar and Khyber on the way to Afghanistan, Mangal Bagh was also under threat from the Afghan Taliban who alleged that he had at one stage become an ally of the Kabul and US-funded militia, or Arbaki as they are known in local languages. The militia has been fighting the Afghan Taliban all over Afghanistan, including Nangarhar. The force has also been accused of committing atrocities. The feuds between the factions of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which splintered and is now regrouping through mergers, also embroiled Mangal Bagh’s Lashkar-i-Islami as he first sided with the TTP and later with the ISIS.

Mangal Bagh had made so many enemies that he was under constant threat to his life. He was running tribal feuds as his own Afridi sub-tribe, Sepah, is small compared to the other Afridi sub-tribes. He had also allegedly ordered the murder of certain of his rivals and jailed and executed some of them. Taking revenge is part of life in the Pakhtun tribal society and someone may have finally avenged the loss of a family member or friend at his hands.

In fact, no militant group or individual may venture to claim responsibility for Mangal Bagh’s assassination to avoid getting involved in a new blood-feud with a group that still has many dedicated and loyal members known for their brutality. Besides, the group has been generating revenue according to the US government from drug-trafficking, cross-border smuggling, kidnappings for ransom, extortions and by imposing taxes on transit trade between Afghanistan and Pakistan. He and his men had a vantage position to do all this first from his bases in Bara and Tirah in Pakistan’s Khyber district and later in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province in the mountainous border areas on both sides of Durand Line. The snow-bound Spinghar mountain range provided a manageable and yet formidable access route between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The US Reward for Justice project is much-publicised, but money claimed is given secretly and quietly once the information is verified. When the reward is claimed, the person or persons who do the job are enabled to shift to America to live unrecognised. Four among the 27 militant figures who until recently were wanted by the US in our region and carried head-money were Pakistanis. Among them was Mangal Bagh. The three still at large are the TTP Mohmand chapter head Abdul Wali aka Omar Khalid Khorasani with a head-money of $3 million, and Hafiz Saeed ($10m) and Abdul Rahman Makki ($2m) of the outlawed Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD). Top of the list are the Al Qaeda head Dr Ayman al-Zawahri who carries a bounty of $25 million followed by Sirajuddin Haqqani and Al Qaeda’s Saif al-Adel and Yasin al-Suri, all three with a head-money of $10 million each. Three lesser-known members of the Haqqani network are also in the list, but none from the mainstream Taliban movement has been listed as the US hasn’t designated it as a terrorist organization. It has, in fact, made a peace deal with it.

The Lashkar-i-Islami wasted no time in choosing Zela Khan Afridi aka Abu Abid as the new head of the banned group in an emergency meeting of its shura in Bandar Darra area in Nangarhar. Not much is known about him, though sources say he was close to Mangal Bagh. Zela Khan Afridi would find it tough to replace Mangal Bagh who was a dominant figure and had led Lashkar-i-Islami since founding it.

As Mangal Bagh’s eldest son, Israfeel, was said to have been murdered in Bara, Khyber, some years ago, his second son Tayyab aka Ajnabi, also based in Afghanistan, was named as the deputy leader in a bid to reassure Mangal Bagh’s diehard followers that his family is held in high esteem. This shows that dynasties have taken root even in militant groups and religious parties.

The Lashkar-i-Islami was already weakened due to desertions, killings and captures. The loss of Mangal Bagh has dealt the biggest blow to it. All its commanders and fighters had fled to Afghanistan in 2008 after the operations against the group by Pakistan’s security forces in Khyber district and their return home is now well-nigh impossible unless they surrender. Their locations and bases in Afghanistan were an open secret but it isn’t known if any action was taken against them by the Afghan government. There is also no evidence that Mangal Bagh’s men ever carried out a terrorist attack in Afghanistan as their focus had always been on carrying out attacks in Pakistan.

The writer is resident editor of The News in Peshawar. He can be reached at rahimyusufzai@yahoo.com