Hafiz Saeed Khan

Saeed was born in 1972, into the Mamozai area of the Upper-Orakzai Tehsil (subdistrict) of Orakzai Agency (today Orakzai District) in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA, today part of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, KPK) in western Pakistan. The Mamozai sub-tribe, the area's eponym, belongs to the Orakzai tribe of the Pashtun people. Pashtuns are the predominant ethnic group in southern and eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan's contemporary Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, split by the Durand Line, a division many Pashtuns do not recognize. Both the Afghan Taliban and Pakistani Taliban (TTP) movements are Pashtun-dominated and often Pashtun-nationalist. Saeed received his early education from Maulana Shabit, a local cleric in Orakzai Agency, before he moved south to Hangu District, Kohat Division, North-West Frontier Province (NWFP, now KPK) and attended Dar al-Uloom Islamia Hangu () where one of his classmates, Maulana Shahidullah, remembered that Saeed had memorized the entire Quran in one year, was particularly peaceful, and would later marry his cousin, producing two sons and one daughter before taking another wife from North Waziristan Agency in the FATA (now a district in KPK). In Islam, one who memorizes the entire Quran (77,430 words in 114 chapters), is rewarded with the title 'Hafiz' (), which translates from Arabic as 'protector'. Though Afghan and Pakistani Taliban often belong to the Deobandi movement, Saeed Khan belonged to the Panjpiri movement, perhaps receiving education from one of the many Saudi-financed Salafist madrassas whose ideology originates in the town of Panjpir in Swabi District, KPK. ==Islamic militancy==

Afghan and Pakistani Taliban In late 2001, when Hafiz Saeed Khan was around 30 years of age, the United States invaded Afghanistan in response to the refusal by Taliban emir Mullah Omar to expel Osama bin Laden following the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. Saeed traveled to the Afghan capital, Kabul, to join the Afghan Taliban in their fight against US and NATO forces, remaining there for at least two years. Saeed grew close to Baitullah Mehsud who would found and initially lead the Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, TTP) in December 2007 and nominate Saeed to sit on the group's Majlis as-Shura (, 'Shura Council'), a consultative council for deliberating the group's major decisions. Baitullah, a Pashto of the Mehsud tribe from Bannu District, NWFP and close in age to Saeed, would also appoint Saeed as emir for his birth agency: Orakzai Agency. His death triggered a succession crisis for the group with senior commanders Hakimullah Mehsud (no biological relation to Baitullah) and Wali ur-Rahman (both of the Mehsud tribe and from South Waziristan) supported by different commanders to succeed Baitullah as TTP emir. A shura, in accordance with Islamic tradition, was convened to deliberate Baitullah's successor but the exchange became heated and ended with open gunfire during which Wali ur-Rahman allegedly shot Hakimullah, sparking rumors that Hakimullah had been killed prompting ur-Rahman to call Reuters and deny that any gunfire had been exchanged and that Hakimullah was alive and well. Hakimullah would officially ascend to become the group's second emir, though the issue formed a severe split among TTP factions and frustrated Saeed. Saeed's tribe, the Mamozai tribe in Orakzai Agency, was reportedly the only tribe that provided refuge to the TTP militants after Baitullah's death. Saeed seemingly maintained a positive relationship with Hakimullah Mehsud despite supporting Wali ur-Rahman and rose in the ranks as an aide to Hakimullah beginning in 2008 when Hakimullah moved to Orakzai Agency. Hakimullah appointed Saeed as emir of the Upper Orakzai Tehsil (subdivision) with TTP commanders Zia ur-Rahman and Mullah Toufan heading the Lower and Central Orakzai Tehsils. US sanctions On 29 September 2015, the United States Department of the Treasury sanctioned Saeed alongside 15 other Islamic State leaders. According to the Department of the Treasury, "Khan, as leader of ISIL-K, plays a central role in expanding ISIL’s operations in the region, commanding militants and coordinating the delivery of supplies and munitions, the travel of associates, and other arrangements. In mid-2015, Khan appointed ISIL representatives in Kunar Province and Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan and approved funding for the establishment of a training camp for ISIL fighters in western Afghanistan. ISIL militants under Khan’s command had taken control of several districts in Nangarhar Province in mid-2015". ==Death==

On 12 July 2015, the Afghan intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, claimed that Saeed was killed in a strike carried out by US-led coalition forces in coordination with intelligence provided by the spy agency, though the United States never confirmed such an operation. The Islamic State rejected the claim, but the strike did kill Shahidullah Shahid and Gul Zaman, according to senior ISIS–K leader Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost. On 12 August 2016, the United States announced that Hafiz Saeed Khan was killed on 26 July 2016 in a U.S. airstrike in Achin district of Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province. There was no immediate response from the group itself, and it was initially unknown who would succeed him. He was succeeded by Abdul Hasib, who was in turn killed by Afghan and US Special Forces in Nangarhar on 27 April 2017. ==References==