Jamaat-ul-Ahrar ("Assembly of the Free") is a terrorist group that split away from the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan in August 2014. Although some media outlets reported that the group had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), it had merely voiced support for the group. In March 2015, the group's spokesman announced that it was rejoining the Pakistani Taliban.
In September 2014, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief Fazlullah ousted Mohmand Agency chief Omar Khalid Khorasani (former leader of Ahrar-ul-Hind). Omar Khalid Khorasani and his associates in Mohmand Agency had accused the TTP leadership of deviating from the TTP ideology, leading to the formation of splinter group TTP Jamaat-ul-Ahrar.
The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan was effectively divided into two factions. The original TTP is headed by Fazlullah, who was elected in November 2013 following the killing of ex-chief Hakimullah Mehsud in a U.S. drone strike. In February 2014, Ahrar-ul-Hind, headed by Umar Qasmi (former leader in the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi) was formed after TTP opened peace talks with the Pakistani government. It later merged into Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a second splinter group that broke away from Tehreek-i-Taliban in Pakistan on 4 September 2014, and named Omar Khalid Khorasani as its commander.
The group had announced they would no longer recognize or obey Mullah Fazlullah as their Emir.
Omar Khalid Khorasani (aka Abdul Wali)- previously led a faction called Ahrar-ul-Hind, which claimed several attacks during a ceasefire period between the government and Taliban earlier this year, including an attack on an Islamabad court complex that killed 12 people. He is also one of the founding members of the TTP and is a former journalist from Mohmand agency. On 9 July 2016, he was confirmed dead in a drone strike in Nangarhar, Afghanistan.
Operation Khyber-1
On 9 November, at least 13 militants were killed in security forces' offensive in Akakhel which included among the dead two suicide bombers and a key commander. Ehsan confirmed that their key commander Abu Jandal was killed during the 9 November bombing in Khyber Agency's Tirah Valley.