A high-profile member of the Pakistan Taliban has been killed in Afghanistan, a senior security official said Monday, after being on the run since 2014 when the army cracked down on the militants.
Muhammad Khurasani, spokesman for the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), died in the eastern province of Nangarhar, the official said, asking not to be named.
"We are in the process of gathering information from Afghanistan on how he was tracked down and killed," the official added, declining to say who was responsible.
Afghan officials in Nangarhar told AFP that they were checking the reports.
Khurasani's death comes weeks after another senior Pakistan Taliban leader escaped unhurt from a suspected drone strike on a safe house in eastern Afghanistan.
The TTP – a separate movement that shares roots with Afghanistan's Taliban – plunged Pakistan into a period of horrific violence after forming in 2007.
Pakistan officials have said Khurasani – whose real name is Khalid Balti –
ran a "terrorist training camp" in North Waziristan before fleeing to Afghanistan.
"He masterminded several attacks in close liaison with the TTP chief Noor Wali Mehsud on Pakistani security forces and innocent citizens from Afghanistan," the security official said.