Maulvi Nazir (also Maulvi Nazir Wazir;
1975 – ) was a leading militant of the Pakistani Taliban
The Pakistani Taliban (), formally called the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (Urdu/ ps, , lit=Student Movement of Pakistan, TTP), is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Afghan–Pakistani bor ...
in South Waziristan
South Waziristan District ( ps, سويلي وزیرستان ولسوالۍ, ur, ) was a district in Dera Ismail Khan Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa before splitting in to Lower South Waziristan District and Upper South Waziristan District and t ...
. Nazir's operations were based in Wana
MENA, an acronym in the English language, refers to a grouping of countries situated in and around the Middle East and North Africa. It is also known as WANA, SWANA, or NAWA, which alternatively refers to the Middle East as Western Asia (or a ...
.
He was opposed to foreigners exercising influence in Waziristan
Waziristan (Pashto and ur, , "land of the Wazir") is a mountainous region covering the former FATA agencies of North Waziristan and South Waziristan which are now districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Waziristan covers some . ...
, including Americans and Uzbek jihadists.[ He was killed by a U.S. ]drone strike
Drone warfare is a form of aerial warfare using unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) or weaponized commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The United States, United Kingdom, Israel, China, South Korea, Iran, Italy, France, India, Pakista ...
on 2 January 2013. The drone strike also killed his deputy Ratta Khan, and two commanders named Kochai and Chewantee.
Background
According to The Jamestown Foundation
The Jamestown Foundation is a Washington, D.C.-based conservative defense policy think tank. Founded in 1984 as a platform to support Soviet defectors, its stated mission today is to inform and educate policy makers about events and trends, which ...
, Nazir was a member of the Kakakhel tribe, part of the Ahmedzai Waziris. With an estimated birth year of 1975, he was a dual citizen of both Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
and Pakistan and until 2010 owned property in Kandahar
Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a List of cities in Afghanistan, city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population ...
. He controlled large portions of South Waziristan and maintained influence in southwestern Afghan provinces of Paktika
Paktika (Pashto/Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktika has a population of about 789,000, mostly ethnic Pashtuns. The town of Sharana ...
, Zabul
Zabul (Pashto/Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the south of the country. It has a population of 249,000. Zabul became an independent province from neighbouring Kandahar in 1963. Historically, it was part of the Zabu ...
, Helmand
Helmand (Pashto/Dari: ; ), also known as Hillmand, in ancient times, as Hermand and Hethumand, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, in the south of the country. It is the largest province by area, covering area. The province contains 13 ...
and into Kandahar.
Early activities
Prior to the creation of the Taliban
The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...
he was affiliated with the Hezbe Islami Gulbuddin, an older conservative group supported by Pakistan's Inter-service Intelligence Directorate
The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI; ur, , bayn khadamatiy mukhabarati) is the premier intelligence agency of Pakistan. It is responsible for gathering, processing, and analyzing any information from around the world that is deemed relevant ...
during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
. He later joined the Taliban and aligned himself politically with Maulana Fazlur Rahman's JUI party.[
With the notable approval of Mullah ]Dadullah
Dadullah (1966 – May 11, 2007) was the Taliban's senior military commander in Afghanistan until his death in 2007. He was also known as Maulavi or Mullah Dadullah Akhund ( ps, ملا دادالله آخوند). He also earned the nickname of ...
and Siraj Haqqani
Sirajuddin Haqqani ( ps, سراج الدين حقاني, Sirāj al-Dīn Ḥaqqānī, ; aliases ''Khalifa'', and, ''Siraj Haqqani''. born December 1979) is an Afghan Islamist militant who is the first deputy leader of Afghanistan and the acti ...
, Nazir enforced sharia
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...
in South Waziristan in 2006 with instructions to his supporters to avoid combating the Pakistani army.[
]
Conflicts with Uzbek militants
After Maulvi Nazir established sharia
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...
his forces, with the support of the Pakistani military, engaged in battle with Uzbek militants of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU; uz, Ўзбекистон исломий ҳаракати/Oʻzbekiston islomiy harakati; russian: Исламское движение Узбекистана ) was a militant Islamist group formed in 1998 ...
(IMU) operating in the region under Tahir Yuldashev
Taher ( ar, طاهر) (spelled Tahir and Tahar in English and French, Тагир in Russian; Pashto,Urdu and Persian: طاهر,; ) is a name meaning "pure" or "virtuous". The origin of this name is Arabic. There are several Semitic variations tha ...
.[ Although more than 250 Uzbeks were killed in the fighting and others were forced to flee, Nazir stated in a 2011 interview that he and the IMU had reconciled after Yuldashev's death in 2009.]
Unification against NATO troops
In early 2009 Nazir and two rival warlords, Baitullah Mehsud
Baitullah Mehsud (Pashto/ ur, ; – 5 August 2009) was one of founder and a leading member of TTP in Waziristan, Pakistan, and the leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). He formed the TTP from an alliance of about five militant groups ...
and Hafiz Gul Bahadur
Hafiz Gul Bahadur (born c.1961) is the leader of a Pakistani Taliban faction based in North Waziristan. Upon the formation of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in December 2007, he was announced as the militant group's overall ''naib amir'' un ...
, agreed to put aside differences to unify efforts against NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
troops under the newly formed ''Shura Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen'', the ''Council of United Mujahedeen''. In a written statement circulated in a one-page Urdu-language pamphlet, the three affirmed that they would put aside differences to fight American-led forces. The statement included a declaration of allegiance to both Mullah Omar
Mullah Muhammad Omar (; –April 2013) was an Afghan Islamic revolutionary who founded the Taliban and served as the supreme leader of Afghanistan from Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996–2001), 1996 to 2001.
Born into a religious family of ...
and Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...
.
Rifts within the ranks
After the death of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan
The Pakistani Taliban (), formally called the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (Urdu/ ps, , lit=Student Movement of Pakistan, TTP), is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Durand Line, Afghan–Pa ...
(TTP) leader Baitullah Mehsud
Baitullah Mehsud (Pashto/ ur, ; – 5 August 2009) was one of founder and a leading member of TTP in Waziristan, Pakistan, and the leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). He formed the TTP from an alliance of about five militant groups ...
, who was killed by a CIA drone
Drone most commonly refers to:
* Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg
* Unmanned aerial vehicle
* Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft
* Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone
Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to:
...
on 5 August 2009, reports surfaced of infighting within the TTP. Mehsud was the leader of the loosely-knit Pakistani Taliban, a militant network comprising 13 different, and sometimes rival, factions. His death created a power vacuum that led to a power struggle within the TTP.
On 16 August 2009, an alleged group of fighters loyal to Baitullah Mehsud, armed with small arms
A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions).
The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes c ...
and rocket-propelled grenade
A rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) is a shoulder-fired missile weapon that launches rockets equipped with an explosive warhead. Most RPGs can be carried by an individual soldier, and are frequently used as anti-tank weapons. These warheads are a ...
s (RPGs), attacked a group of Nazir's men, killing at least 17 militants. According to Nazir's spokesman Shaheen Wazir, the attack was so sudden, that Nazir's fighters couldn't even fire back.[Daily Times – Leading News Resource of Pakistan]
It was also reported that Nazir himself was one of the 17 men killed.[ Baitullah Mehsud's camp denied the accusations. Abdul Haq, another spokesman for Nazir said he didn't know whether Mehsud's loyalists or the Pakistan Army were behind the attack.][
]
Efforts against Nazir
In October 2011, Nazir's brother Hazrat Umar was killed along with several other militants in a US drone strike in South Waziristan. Local residents confirmed Hazrat Umar's death.
Death
A U.S. drone
Drone most commonly refers to:
* Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg
* Unmanned aerial vehicle
* Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft
* Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone
Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to:
...
strike killed Maulvi Nazir on 2 January 2013 in Angoor Adda, near the capital of Wana, South Waziristan. Bahawal Khan, also known as Salahuddin Ayubi, was announced as Nazir's successor.Bahawal Khan to succeed Pakistan militant leader Mullah Nazir
BBC, 4 January 2013
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nazir, Maulvi
Taliban leaders
1975 births
2013 deaths
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan members
Pashtun people
Pakistani people of Afghan descent
Afghan people of Pakistani descent
Deaths by United States drone strikes in Pakistan