Pakistan’s counter terrorism campaign has entered a decisive phase, marked by the systematic removal of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s top tier leadership. The recent elimination of four senior commanders, including Qari Amjad alias Mazahim, the deputy and closest confidant of TTP chief Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud, represents one of the most significant setbacks for the group since 2023. These killings, spread across Bajaur, Khyber, and Afghanistan’s eastern provinces, have affected the very structure of TTP’s operational hierarchy and exposed once again the cross border nature of its networks.
Mazahim’s death, during an attempted infiltration from Afghanistan’s Kunar province into Bajaur, carries strategic significance because he was not only the chief deputy of Noor Wali but also the head of the Rehbari Shura. He controlled recruitment pipelines, operational planning cells, and dispute resolution between various TTP factions. His removal disrupts the chain of command in a manner that TTP cannot easily absorb, particularly at a time when the group is already facing internal strain due to increased surveillance, precision targeting and a growing trust deficit within its Afghanistan based cadres.
Alongside him, Qari Ismail alias Aziz ur Rehman, the newly appointed shadow governor and a key figure in the organisation’s reshaped hierarchy, was killed in an intelligence based operation in the Tirah region of Khyber. Ismail operated one of the most active militant networks that oversaw attacks, local facilitation, and training. His rise to a senior role earlier this year reflected TTP’s attempt to restructure itself after multiple losses. His swift elimination underscores the vulnerability of this new leadership arrangement.
In Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, two other veteran commanders, Fazal Ameen and Qari Hidayatullah, were eliminated in separate incidents. Fazal Ameen, who had been active for years while remaining sheltered across the border, had a record of coordinating cross border operations and planning targeted strikes inside Pakistan. Meanwhile, Hidayatullah was regarded as both experienced and controversial. His involvement in the 2022 Peshawar Police Lines attack and the 2015 Mina Bazaar bombing placed him among the most dangerous operational planners within TTP’s ranks. These killings have removed three individuals who were part of Noor Wali’s inner circle and therefore central to the TTP’s ability to operate across administrative boundaries.
A Leadership Crisis Born Out of Attrition and Cross Border Dependency
The recent eliminations cannot be viewed in isolation. They represent a broader trajectory that began in early 2024, when Pakistan intensified intelligence driven operations across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, merged districts and the border belt. Over the past twenty months, a consistent pattern has emerged. Divisional heads, Shura members, financiers, network facilitators and regional commanders have been neutralised one after another. Figures like Mohsin Qadir in Mardan, Abdul Rahim in Peshawar, Ustad Janoori in Khyber, Molvi Taha in Malakand, Commander Mubarak Kochwan in 2025, and later Zainullah, Abu Saeed, Chhota Waseem, Rauf Afridi, Tahir, Naqeebullah Agha, and several others represent a chain of decapitations that has eroded the group’s structure from multiple angles.
Each operation, whether involving the neutralisation of commanders in North Waziristan, targeted actions in Lakki Marwat, or precision strikes in border regions such as Bajaur and Mohmand, reflects a consistent strategy: strike high value nodes, collapse command channels and prevent cross border infiltration. The cumulative effect has left TTP increasingly dependent on Afghanistan based sanctuaries, and this reliance has created its own limitations. Internal rivalries, suspicion among cadres and vulnerability to external attacks by unidentified actors inside Afghanistan have added pressure on the organisation.
The killing of Fazal Ameen and Hidayatullah inside Nangarhar mirrors the elimination of Naqeebullah Agha in Kandahar last August and the pattern of unidentified assailants targeting TTP personnel on Afghan soil. This trend has complicated Noor Wali’s ability to maintain cohesion within a dispersed leadership that no longer feels secure even across the border.
Pakistan’s stance that TTP uses Afghan territory to stage attacks has been reinforced by the latest infiltration attempt in Bajaur that resulted in Mazahim’s death. The group’s continued reliance on Kunar, Nangarhar, Paktika and Khost as operational corridors for movement, planning and recruitment exposes both its weakness and its strategic dependence on external geography.
The elimination of these four commanders therefore carries a strategic weight greater than their individual profiles. Together they represented operational planning, regional coordination, doctrinal influence and regional facilitation. Their removal weakens TTP’s ability to synchronise cross border tactics, erodes its organisational coherence and deepens the leadership vacuum created by successive losses since 2024.
Looking ahead, analysts note that TTP will attempt to fill these gaps by elevating mid level commanders. However, these replacements will lack both the authority and the experience that Mazahim and his associates commanded. The cycle of infiltration attempts, internal mistrust and targeted eliminations suggests that Pakistan’s security apparatus maintains both improved intelligence acquisition and operational readiness. As long as these conditions persist, TTP’s capacity to conduct coordinated, high impact attacks will remain under pressure.
The recent eliminations therefore do not simply mark the removal of four individuals. They represent a continuation of a larger strategic shift, one in which Pakistan’s counter terrorism effort has repeatedly neutralised the group’s leadership, disrupted its networks and forced it into a cycle of reaction rather than action. With Mazahim gone and his closest associates eliminated, TTP faces a leadership crisis that may prove deeper and more consequential than any it has faced in the past decade.
