Pakistan confirms Hakimullah Mehsud’s death

PESHAWAR - Interior Minister Rehman Malik Wednesday confirmed the death of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud, a day after the militant group itself said he had died.

Speaking to reporters here, he said there were reports that Qari Hussain, who had masterminded a number of suicide bombings, had also been killed.

On Tuesday, the TTP confirmed that Mehsud had died of injuries sustained in a drone strike last month. Noor Jamal has been named the new acting leader of the militants.

Taliban sources based in the Aurakzai tribal region told a private TV channel that 28-year-old Mehsud was severely injured in the attack in Shaktoi area of North Waziristan Agency Jan 14 and died recently near Multan city in Punjab province while being taken to Karachi for treatment, Online news agency reported.

His body was taken back to the tribal belt, the sources said.

However, there were also reports that Mehsud had died almost two weeks ago and was buried in his father-in-law’s village in Aurakzai Agency.

TTP spokesman Azam Tariq had been insisting that Mehsud was alive and at an undisclosed location.

Pakistani and US security officials have been saying for the past two weeks that they were certain Mehsud had died of injuries sustained in a US drone attack.

Shortly after reports of Mehsud’s death first emerged in mid-January, the Taliban issued two audio messages in which the dreaded commander claimed he was alive.

The US stepped up drone attacks targeting Mehsud after he was shown in a video with a Jordanian suicide bomber who killed seven CIA operatives in an attack on a forward base in Khost province of Afghanistan.

Mehsud, born in Kotkai village of South Waziristan Agency and educated in a seminary, had fought against US forces in Afghanistan after the Taliban regime in Kabul was ousted in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks.

He later rose to prominence as the commander of Taliban fighters in the Kurram, Aurakzai and Khyber tribal regions.

Mehsud, who claimed responsibility for several audacious suicide attacks, including the one on the five-star Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar, was made the TTP chief after his predecessor Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a drone attack in August last year.