''We have long said that Mansour posed an imminent threat to us and to Afghan civilians,'' he said. ''This action sends a clear message to the world that we will continue to work with our Afghan partners. He was seen embracing and escorting Maulana Masood Azhar, the Jaish-e-Mohammed leader who New Delhi was forced to free in exchange for the hostages on Flight 814. ''We will continue taking action against extremist networks that target the United States. The targeted killing apparently came at the instance of Afghanistan, which had complained to Washington that Mansour, as a Pakistani ISI proxy, was a hurdle in peace talks it was trying to initiate with Taliban.

Source: Times of India July 23, 2016 06:56 UTC