A secret meeting to choose a successor to the slain Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud erupted into a gunbattle in which at least one senior commander was killed, Pakistani officials said.
Pakistan’s interior minister, Rehman Malik, said the shootout took place in a remote mountain village on Thursday morning, one day after Mehsud was apparently killed in a US drone attack.
Guns were drawn between Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali ur Rehman, both of whom were vying to succeed Mehsud. “They had a rift in the past. A scuffle took place and one of them is dead,” he said.
A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Hakimullah died and Rehman was injured. An intelligence official said both men were killed.
As with much that has emerged from the tumultuous tribal belt since Wednesday’s CIA drone strike, the report was clouded by counter-claims. On Saturday morning, two days after the apparent shoot-out, the BBC and Associated Press said they had been contacted by Hakimullah.
In the BBC interview, he described accounts of Baitullah Mehsud’s death as “ridiculous”. The government official suggested the media outlets were contacted by an impersonator.
Authorities still lack definitive proof of Mehsud’s death, as they do not have the body and so have been unable to carry out a DNA test. The tribal belt is controlled by heavily-armed fighters and the government has virtually no control.
But officials, citing intelligence intercepts and other sources, were increasingly confident the Taliban warlord had been killed. An intelligence official said there was “no doubt” about Mehsud’s fate, while the interior minister challenged nay-sayers to produce video proof he was alive.
On Monday, a rival Taliban commander, Saifullah Mehsud, gave a television interview in which he said: “It is a proven fact that Baitullah Mehsud has been killed by a drone and buried.” The bearded militant was surrounded by gunmen, with a pistol in his lap and his leg in a plaster cast.
Unrest was spreading to other parts of the tribal belt. Local television stations reported that a village militia clashed with Taliban fighters in Mohmand, leaving 14 people dead.
The shoot-out at Sara Rogha, if confirmed, suggests that a violent power struggle has erupted in the ranks of the Taliban leadership, providing a valuable opportunity for Pakistani intelligence to weaken the organisation.
Hakimullah, a fiery young commander, controlled Taliban operations in Orakzai and parts of Khyber tribal regions. His fighters repeatedly attacked Western supply convoys headed for Afghanistan and last year he was pictured laughing as he drove a stolen US Humvee jeep.
The future of Mehsud’s organisation may now be shaped by Sirajuddin Haqqani, a powerful Afghan warlord with strong al-Qaeda links. Haqqani’s tribal network spans the porous border between the two countries, and his warlord father, Jalaluddin, is an old friend of Osama bin Laden.
The Haqqanis were also close allies with Baitullah Mehsud. If they take a stronger role in running his group, the Pakistani Taliban may concentrate more on attacking Western troops in Afghanistan rather than targets inside their own borders. – guardian.co.uk