Pakistan’s counter-terrorism forces have killed Mufti Muzahim, one of the most senior leaders of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), in an overnight intelligence-based operation in Bajaur District near the Afghan border, a strike officials are calling a “major counter-terror breakthrough.”

Muzahim, also known by the aliases Qari Amjid, Mufti Hazrat, and Qari Amjid Swati, had been designated a global terrorist by the United States on November 30, 2022, alongside Al-Qaeda figures Usama Mehmood, Asif Yaha Ghori, and Muhammad Marof. The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control froze any assets he might have held under American jurisdiction and prohibited all financial dealings with him under Executive Order 13224.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) also confirmed the development, stating that “TTP commander Qari Amjad was killed along with three other militants while they were trying to infiltrate into Bajaur from Afghanistan in the Mamund area linked with the Pak–Afghan border.”

From Samar Bagh to the TTP Shura

Born on April 17, 1979, in Samar Bagh, a rugged valley in Pakistan’s Lower Dir District, Muzahim emerged from a religious background that produced both clerics and fighters. Trained in seminaries across Dir and Swat, he gained the title of Mufti before gravitating toward militancy during the insurgencies that swept Pakistan’s northwest in the mid-2000s.

By 2007, when Baitullah Mehsud founded the TTP, Muzahim had joined its early cadres. His mix of religious authority and tactical skill propelled him upward through the organization’s ranks.

The real ascent came in June 2018, after a U.S. drone strike killed TTP chief Mullah Fazlullah. The group’s Shura Council elevated Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud to emir and appointed Muzahim as Naib Ameer, Deputy Leader. It was a defining reshuffle: Noor Wali became the political and ideological face of the TTP; Muzahim, its chief strategist and battlefield commander.

The “Defence Minister” of the Pakistani Taliban

Within the movement, Muzahim headed the Shuba-e-Mazahim, the TTP’s so-called Defence Wing, giving him operational control over hundreds of “dalgay”, militant fighting units dispersed across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the former tribal belt. Western counter-terrorism trackers estimated that by 2023, he was coordinating more than 400 active cells across Pakistan.

His fingerprints appeared on nearly every major escalation of violence in recent years. Under his command, the TTP launched ambushes, targeted killings, and suicide bombings that claimed hundreds of lives between 2022 and 2025. He was directly implicated in attacks on security installations, police convoys, and checkpoints stretching from Bajaur to Bannu.

Safe Haven Across the Border

After the fall of Kabul in 2021, Muzahim relocated to Dangam District in Kunar Province, Afghanistan. Intelligence files described him living under the protection of the Afghan Taliban, holding an official Afghan ID card and licensed weaponry, an M4, M16, and two Kalashnikovs, as well as a 2005 Toyota Fielder registered in his name.

His status in Kunar epitomized Islamabad’s long-standing charge that TTP commanders enjoy sanctuary across the border, a claim the Taliban government continues to deny.

Breaking the Ceasefire

In November 2022, Muzahim surfaced through the TTP’s Umar Media platform with a statement ending the group’s seven-month ceasefire with Pakistan. He accused Islamabad of violating peace terms and urged fighters to “launch attacks anywhere in the country.”

That call reignited the insurgency, driving a surge of bombings and raids that lifted militant activity by nearly 70 percent over the next two years. The same month, Washington blacklisted him, citing his “leadership role in planning and directing terrorist operations.”

Propaganda and Power

Despite his low-profile demeanor, Muzahim was a fixture in TTP propaganda videos and statements reaffirming allegiance to Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. He was viewed as the organizational glue between Pakistan-based fighters and the Afghan-side leadership, responsible for strategic planning and inter-faction coordination.

Analysts considered him both ideologue and enforcer, the bridge between the doctrinal authority of Noor Wali Mehsud and the tactical commanders operating on the ground.

The Operation in Bajaur

Shortly before midnight on October 30, 2025, Pakistani intelligence picked up Muzahim’s movement through Mamund Tehsil of Bajaur as he reportedly tried to re-enter Pakistani territory from Kunar. Acting on precise coordinates, CTD units and security forces encircled the area. In the ensuing firefight, Muzahim and one aide were killed.

Images of his body began circulating on X (formerly Twitter) within hours, shared by regional analysts and OSINT trackers. While official confirmation came later, senior security officials privately described the mission as “a textbook IBO and one of 2025’s most significant successes.”

Strategic and Political Impact

For Pakistan, Muzahim’s elimination strikes at the heart of the TTP’s command-and-control structure. As deputy emir and military chief, he oversaw the group’s revival following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. His death is expected to unsettle coordination among TTP factions and temporarily reduce cross-border infiltration.

The operation also sends a message to Kabul. By targeting a figure long believed to be operating under Afghan protection, Islamabad reinforces its demand that the Taliban curb TTP sanctuaries on Afghan soil. Diplomatically, the timing, coinciding with the fifth round of Pakistan-Afghanistan Istanbul Talks, bolsters Pakistan’s position in pressing for concrete security guarantees.

Western counter-terror analysts note that the strike aligns with U.S. objectives against globally designated terrorists, potentially reopening space for limited intelligence collaboration after years of strain.

The Shadow He Leaves Behind

Within militant circles, Muzahim’s death will be framed as martyrdom, but the operational vacuum he leaves is considerable. He was both strategist and unifier, one of the few figures able to manage the rivalries between the Mehsud, Mohmand, and Swati factions. His loss may spark internal contestation over succession even as the group vows retaliation.

Experts caution, however, that TTP’s history of regeneration means the group will likely regroup rather than collapse. Its current emir, Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud, remains at large in Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s Track Record of Eliminating Top Militants

Muzahim’s killing adds to a growing list of high-value militant eliminations carried out by Pakistani and allied intelligence in recent years, a record that underscores Islamabad’s steady but costly campaign to dismantle the TTP’s upper echelon.

In August 2022, Omer Khalid Khorasani (real name Abdul Wali Mohmand), founder of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and one of the TTP’s most feared commanders, was killed in a roadside explosion in Afghanistan’s Paktika Province along with his deputies Mufti Hassan Swati and Hafiz Dawlat Khan Orakzai. Khorasani had carried a US$3 million U.S. bounty for his role in the 2016 Lahore Easter bombing and the 2014 Wagah Border suicide attack. His death fractured TTP’s anti-peace bloc and briefly weakened the group’s operational coherence.

Before him, Sheikh Khalid Haqqani, another TTP deputy emir and member of the Rahbari Shura, was killed in Afghanistan in 2020, followed by Mufti Khalid Balti, the group’s former spokesperson, in Nangarhar in early 2022. Sheharyar Mehsud, leader of a powerful Hakimullah-aligned faction, was eliminated in 2023 under similar circumstances.

Each of these killings chipped away at TTP’s hierarchy, but none struck as high as the neutralization of Mufti Muzahim, the group’s sitting deputy emir and operational architect. His removal represents the most senior TTP leadership loss since Khorasani, and by many assessments, the most strategically significant since 2018.

A Blow Comparable to Khorasani’s

Analysts have likened the impact of Muzahim’s death to the killing of Omer Khalid Khorasani in 2022, another major figure whose death disrupted the TTP’s internal cohesion. Yet, by rank and influence, Muzahim’s elimination may be even more consequential: the removal of the group’s number two, its chief strategist, and the architect of its most violent recent phase.

Aftermath

As dawn broke over Bajaur, Pakistani officials called the operation “a turning point.” For Islamabad, it is both tactical victory and strategic signal, proof that senior militants once thought untouchable are now within reach.

For the TTP, it is the loss of the man who kept its battlefield machine running. Whether his death heralds decline or another cycle of revenge will depend on how effectively Pakistan sustains the momentum, and how long the Afghan Taliban can ignore the fallout brewing across their shared border.