Former Taliban giving bayah (allegiance to Islamic State) AfPak group
TOLO News Afghanistan are reporting the alleged death of Hafiz Saeed, Islamic State (“Daesh” No 1 in Afghanistan) in a drone strike in Nangarhar according to intelligence from National Directorate of Security (NDS). The Afghanistan/Pakistan (AfPak) group of Islamic State are also referred to as Wilayat Khorasan. TOLO stated,
“Saeed was killed along with 30 others in the air strike in Achin district of Nangarhar, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) officials told TOLO news.
This was the third and the biggest attack against Daesh in less than a week after Gull Zaman, the group’s number 2 in Afghanistan, was killed along with his deputy, Jahanyar, in a drone strike in the same district.
Also, Mawlavi Shahidullah Shahid, a former Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman and the first one to pledge allegiance to Daesh in Afghanistan, was killed on Thursday in a similar attack in Nangarhar.”
However yet again there is confusion,
Habib Khan Totakhil tweeted,
A self-proclaimed commander of Da’esh Abu Talut Al-Khurasani dismisses report of Hafiz Saeed’s death & says “He is alive and well.”
Steve Herman, VOA correspondent in Asia, tweeted,
Confusion — apparently #ISIS #Afghanistan leader reported killed is Hafiz Saeed Khan, not Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.
Tahir Khan, journalist tweeted a contact saying,
Maroof sahib u posted wrong picture. This is Hafiz Saeed, chief of Jamaat-ud-Daawa, please remove it
Hafez Saeed Khan was allegedly the former Emir of TTP in Orakzai and defected to IS back in Autumn 2014 along with Fateh Gul Zaman who was purported to head TTP in Khyber Agency and Shahidullah Shahid (Shaykh Maqbool) who used to be spokesperson for TTP, see following link,
“TTP release statement regarding Shahidullah Shahid who has allegedly pledged allegiance to IS”
To date there has been no official confirmation of deaths from Islamic State. However if correct, decapitating the head of IS in Afghanistan could well lead to “blowback”. An academic study by Max Abrahms (Terrorism Theorist at Northeastern University, US) and Dutch research fellow Jochen Mierau, “Leadership Matters: The Effects of Targeted Killings on Militant Group Tactics” concluded that, “when leaderships are threatened with targeted killings, militant groups are far more likely to attack civilians notwithstanding the potential political costs”. They said,
“our statistical analysis suggest that targeted killings are particularly likely to result in indiscriminate violence when the leaders struck are both more senior and responsible for supplying tactical guidance.”
Study can be found below,
Links
“AfPak: Conflicting reports as to whether Shahidullah Shahid IS commander was killed in drone strike.”
“Are IS gaining a foothold in AfPak: New release shows some allegiance in the region”
Carol Anne Grayson is an independent writer/researcher on global health/human rights and is Executive Producer of the Oscar nominated, Incident in New Baghdad . She is a Registered Mental Nurse with a Masters in Gender Culture and Development. Carol was awarded the ESRC, Michael Young Prize for Research 2009, and the COTT ‘Action = Life’ Human Rights Award’ for “upholding truth and justice”. She is also a survivor of US “collateral damage”.
Carol Anne Grayson (Radical Sister) blog 
Reblogged this on Nawa-e-Muslim and commented:
Western media outlets confusing the death of #ISIS Afghanistan Ameer Hafiz Saeed Khan with #JuD ‘s Hafiz Muhammad Saeed