The militant leader stirring conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan

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ISLAMABAD - Hanging over the recent eruption of fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the most serious clash between the neighbours in decades, is the spectre of a militant leader Islamabad accuses of directing near-daily attacks on its soil.

An uneasy ceasefire took hold on Wednesday, but Pakistan’s main grievance endures: the presence of Noor Wali Mehsud in Afghanistan, along with his top lieutenants.

Last week, an airstrike in Kabul hit an armoured Toyota Land Cruiser believed to be carrying him, according to Pakistani security officials. Militants and Pakistani officials say he likely survived, and the group released an audio message purportedly from him.

Pakistan has not officially owned the airstrike, the first in Kabul since the successful 2022 U.S. targeting of Al Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The Afghan Taliban denies harbouring Pakistani militants and, in turn, accuses Islamabad of sheltering the local branch of the Islamic State group, their main armed rival.

REVIVAL UNDER HIS LEADERSHIP

Mehsud took over the leadership of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in 2018 after his three predecessors were killed by U.S. drone strikes. By then, Pakistani army operations had largely driven the group out of their former strongholds and into Afghanistan.

He has revived the group, transformed its strategy and united warring factions with diplomatic skill, analysts say. Trained as a religious scholar, he also took up an ideological battle.

The Talibans 2021 takeover next door gave the TTP freer movement and greater access to weapons, Islamabad says, and attacks inside Pakistan escalated — especially in the northwest bordering Afghanistan.

In the past, the TTP struck civilian targets, like mosques and markets, including killing more than 130 children in a 2014 school assault. Mehsud, concerned these