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Pakistan Taliban confirms death of Mehsud: TV

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-08-26 09:24

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Taliban group has confirmed the death of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud, local TV channels reported Tuesday.

The new TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud called the BBC Urdu service and confirmed that Baitullah had been unconscious since he was critically injured in a US drone attack on Aug. 5 in northwestern Pakistan's South Waziristan and died two days ago.

This Nov. 26, 2008 photo taken in Orakzai tribal region of Pakistan shows Hakimullah Mehsud who has become the leader of Pakistani Taliban faction after death of Baitullah Mehsud. [Agencies]

Hakimullah Mehsud, in his late twenties, was declared successor to Baitullah Mehsud on Saturday. He has served as spokesman for Baitulalh and taken charge of TTP in Orakzai and Khyber tribal agencies.

Another Taliban leader Waliur Rehman Mehsud also confirmed that Baitullah Mehsud is dead.

Both leaders had earlier denied the Pakistani government's claim about the death of Baitullah Mehsud.

Hakimullah Mehsud has been elected as the new chief of the Taliban movement, according to the movement deputy Maulvi Faqir Muhammad.

Waliur Rehamn Mehsud denied any differences over the new leaderand confirmed that Hakimullah Mehsud is the new leader of Taliban movement. He said that he will lead Taliban movement only in South Waziristan tribal region.

Baitullah Mehsud was born in the early 1970s in Landi Dhok village in the Bannu district of the North West Frontier Province, which lies some distance from the Mehsud tribe's base in the South Waziristan agency.

He emerged as a major tribal leader soon after the death of NekMohammad in 2004. In a ceremony attended by five leading Taliban commanders, including Mullah Dadullah of Afghan Taliban, Baitullahwas appointed Mullah Omar's governor of the Mehsud area.

Related readings:  Al-Qaeda seeking Mehsud's successor: TV  US, Pakistan increasingly believe Mehsud dead  Militants say Pakistan's Mehsud alive  Pakistan, US: Taliban chief Mehsud may be dead

As a young madrassa student, Baitullah had often traveled to Afghanistan to assist the Taliban in its implementation of Sharia, or Islamic law.

He was accused of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, a charge he had denied.

On June 28, 2009 the Pakistani government announced a reward of50,000,000 rupees (about 625,000 US dollars) for information leading to the capture, dead or alive, of Baitullah. The bounty coincided with a previous offer from the United States, who offered 5,000,000 dollars.