A Pakistan deserter soldier who joined the Jamat ul Ahrar (JuA) terror group after the dreadful incident of APS Peshawar 2014, has been killed in Afghanistan.

As per reports, Muddasar Iqbal was a soldier with Pakistan Army till 2014. The year when the country witnessed one of the worst security incident in its history on Dec 16th where a group of heavily armed terrorists stormed Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar and killed 142 people including more than 130 children.

The incident forced then Pakistani government to launch a comprehensive military action against TTP terrorist group in, what at that time was known as, North Waziristan Agency in Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA). Currently, this area is a district of KPK province.

Muddasar Iqbal after its desertion to JuA came to limelight when he accused Pakistan Army for killing the students. Basically, this was a lie and his attempt to earn confidence of JuA leadership in Afghanistan. Pakistani intelligence agencies were able to trace the mastermind of APS Omer Khalid Khorasani in Afghanistan, but he was eliminated only in 2022. Khorasani was one of the founding memebers of TTP and in March 2018 he was included in the US U.S. State Department’s Rewards for Justice wanted list with a bounty up to $3 million.

He was killed by slitting his throat which is TTP standard for execution. According to TTP’s own internal communications, TTP killed him for spying for Pakistan Army since last few months. A message arrived in this regard reads as “Ex Pakistan Army soldier Muhammad Iqbal from Sialkot joined JuA many years ago was found involved in spying for Pakistan Army. In absence of proof he was kept under surveillance but wasn’t punished.

He was arrested while he was returning his home near Kama Waswali area and his mobile was confiscated from where all the details and proofs of his involvement in spying for Pakistan Army were recovered. Hence, he was punished accordingly. ”

According to investigations by Pakistani security agencies, the real mastermind behind APS attack was PAF’s deserted technician Adnan Rasheed who remains at large in Afghanistan. JuA was TTP’s splinter group formed by Omer Khalid Khorasani around that came to prominence after it claimed responsibility for the 2014 Wagah border suicide attack few months before the APS incident. In 2015, JuA rejoined TTP.

News Desk