By Mushtaq Yusufzai, Producer, NBC News
PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A senior member of the Afghan Taliban and financier for the militant Haqqani network was shot dead overnight in Pakistan's capital Islamabad, officials and Taliban sources told NBC News on Monday.
Naseeruddin Haqqani, who was said to be the faction's financier, was killed "in the night between Sunday and Monday," a senior member of the Haqqani network confirmed.
According to a Taliban commander who asked to remain anonymous, unknown people took Haqqani to Bhara Kahoo, an area outside Islamabad, and shot him dead overnight.
The Haqqani network is a militant faction but its members call themselves part of the Afghan Taliban. The group has carried out deadly attacks on U.S. and NATO forces and their installations in Afghanistan, and kidnapped U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl in 2009. He is still being held.
The commander said Haqqani, who was known as "Doctor" among Taliban fighters, had been living in Pakistan's garrison city of Rawalpindi for many years along with other members of his family and had never been involved in militant activities against foreign forces in Afghanistan.
He was the elder brother of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the militant group's leader.
Haqqani's body was moved to his home in Rawalpindi and then taken to the village of Danday Darpakhel near North Waziristan's headquarters of Miranshah, where he was buried at 4 p.m. (7 a.m. ET), the commander said.
Local residents in Miranshah said a limited number of people attended the funeral because of a curfew implemented by the local government after unidentified gunmen attacked Pakistani security forces in the volatile tribal region on Sunday.
The family said they had no idea who could have killed him.
Pakistani police and government officials were not immediately available for comment.
In 2009 the U.S. put a $5 million bounty on Sirajuddin Haqqani and on September 7, 2012 designated the Haqqani network as Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).
Reuters contributed to this report.
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