The Pakistani Taliban announced a successor to former commander Baitullah Mehsud, but intelligence officials said today it was probably a smokescreen meant to hold together a movement left leaderless for almost three weeks.
Taliban officials rang journalists in northwest Pakistan yesterday to say Hakimullah Mehsud, a young militant who commands fighters in the Orakzai, Khyber and Kurram tribal regions, had been chosen as the new chief by a leadership council, or shura.
Western governments with troops in Afghanistan are watching to see if any new Pakistani Taliban leader would shift focus from fighting the Pakistani government and put the movement's weight behind the Afghan insurgency led by Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Tribal elders said Hakimullah was named after Faqir Mohammad was dissuaded from taking the leadership, although earlier he had said he was taking temporary command.
"There's confusion. Two days ago, Fariq Mohammad claimed he's acting chief and now he says Hakimullah is," one senior intelligence officer in northwest Pakistan said. "It's a trick."
Intelligence officials insisted Hakimullah was killed or gravely wounded in a shootout with a rival days after Baitullah Mehsud was killed by a US missile strike on August 5th.
"The announcement is real, but the man isn't," the officer said. "The real Hakimullah is dead."
Another senior officer, who requested anonymity, speculated that the Taliban leadership was trying to buy time until one of Hakimullah's brothers returned from fighting in the Afghan insurgency to take command.
Verifying anything in the Taliban-held tribal regions is difficult and the past few weeks have seen a spate of claims and counter-claims by the Pakistani authorities and the militants.
Taliban officials say Pakistani intelligence agents were spreading misinformation to create divisions in the movement.
The Pakistani authorities say the Pakistani Taliban is in disarray and the statements made are meant to preserve some sense of unity until a new leader emerges.
The Taliban have denied that Mehsud was killed in the missile strike, but say he is seriously ill.
Baitullah Mehsud had united 13 militant factions in northwest Pakistan to form the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan in late 2007, and the Pakistani authorities are hoping that his death would hasten the disintegration of the loose-knit alliance.
Reuters