A Pakistan Taliban commander says he has taken over the militant leadership, but analysts on Thursday said the claim simply exposed deep rifts after the reported death of leader Baitullah Mehsud.
American and Pakistani officials believe Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Mehsud was killed earlier this month in a missile attack by United States drone aircraft in the lawless northwest tribal belt near the Afghan border.
Government officials have said the death of the al-Qaeda-linked warlord plunged the TTP into disarray, with factions opening up as different commanders vied to lead the militia blamed for hundreds of deaths across Pakistan.
Late on Wednesday, an apparent successor emerged — TTP deputy and battle-hardened former teacher Maulvi Faqir Mohammad — but analysts said the claim was another sign of infighting, not unity.
”Baitullah Mehsud is alive but he is seriously ill. In his absence I announce, as vice-president of the TTP, the takeover of his leadership,” 48-year-old Mohammad told Agence France-Presse by telephone from an undisclosed location.
He said two other senior Taliban leaders reportedly competing for the top post — Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali-ur Rehman — had endorsed his leadership.
Neither militant was available for comment on Thursday, however, and analysts said Mohammad’s proclamation should be treated as an assertion of power as the succession battle raged on, rather than a concrete appointment.
”There is obviously a power struggle going on,” said analyst and newspaper columnist Shafqat Mahmood. ”I don’t think that in actual fact he would have control over the Taliban movement, whatever is left of it.”
”He [Mohammad] was number two and now that Baitullah Mehsud is dead he believes that he by rights should succeed him, but it is nothing more than a formal claim,” he added.
Mahmood said that Mohammad hailed from Bajaur tribal district rather than the Mehsud heartland of South Waziristan, and would therefore be unlikely to count on the support of the fighters loyal to the feared warlord.
Rahimullah Yusufzai, an analyst and expert on the tribal areas, said even if deputy Mohammad technically assumed leadership, he did not have the clout to hold on to the reins of power for long.
”This decision lacks a consensus … The real power of TTP lies within Waziristan, and without the Waziristan Taliban, the TTP would be weakened considerably,” he told Agence France-Presse. ”Maulvi Faqir is not even strong in his own area.”
Mohammad also named Swat Taliban figure Muslim Khan as spokesperson for the TTP, replacing Maulvi Omar, who was captured by security forces on Monday in a fresh blow for the Islamist extremists.
Pakistani intelligence officials say Omar has confirmed that Mehsud was killed in a CIA strike on his father-in-law’s house on August 5, although the Taliban on Wednesday again denied his demise.
Pakistan in late April launched a punishing military offensive against Taliban in the northwest, targeting the rebels in the districts of Swat, Buner and Lower Dir after militants advanced perilously close to the capital.
Last month the military claimed to have cleared the area of the Taliban threat, and vowed to turn their attention to the mountainous tribal belt where Mehsud and his network have thrived since 2007.
Pakistani and US officials accuse Mehsud of masterminding the 2007 assassination of ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto and a string of other attacks that have killed hundreds of people here over the past two years. — AFP
