The fatal shooting of two men in the heart of the Afghan capital Kabul – a city unfortunately used to violence – went almost unnoticed.
But then, the dead men had hoped to go unnoticed: according to one source, they were both carrying fake IDs.
Exactly what they were doing in Kabul, and who killed them, remains a mystery that touches upon the murky links between security services and extremist groups in the region.
Who they really were, at least, has become clear. According to sources in Pakistani intelligence and militant circles, the men were senior members of the Pakistani Taliban – a group that has killed hundreds of Pakistanis in suicide bombings and other attacks.
One of the dead men was Sheikh Khalid Haqqani, who held a key position in the Pakistani Taliban's leadership council, and formerly served as the group's deputy leader.
He had been accused of involvement in several high-profile attacks on Pakistani politicians and linked to one of the country's deadliest militant attacks, the 2014 assault on a school in Peshawar, which left more than 150 people – mainly children – dead.
The second man was Qari Saif Younis, a military commander within the group. In a statement on Thursday, the Pakistani Taliban confirmed the men's identities and their deaths but gave few other details.
According to one militant source, the men had been due to hold a secret…
