ISLAMABAD – The deputy head of the Pakistani Taliban said he has temporarily taken over command in a move likely to fuel rifts among militant factions after the reported killing of leader Baitullah Mehsud.
Pakistani and US officials are almost certain Mehsud was killed along with his wife and some guards in a strike by a CIA-operated drone aircraft on August 5th in his South Waziristan stronghold on the Afghan border. His aides have been insisting he is still alive.
Faqir Mohammad, deputy head of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Taliban Movement of Pakistan, also denied Mehsud was dead and, like other Taliban commanders, said he was ill and lying low. “Because of the illness of the emir (leader), I am acting emir,” the BBC’s Urdu-language service quoted Mohammad as saying.
Pakistan and US officials have claimed the Pakistani Taliban appeared to be in disarray after Mehsud’s death, with reports of in-fighting between factions vying to take command.
Analysts say the Taliban’s reluctance to admit Mehsud’s death could be a tactic aimed at averting discord before the leadership question is settled. But Mohammad’s announcement demonstrated that division in the ranks was deepening. “The rift is now more visible,” said Rahimullah Yousufzai, a veteran journalist and expert on militant affairs on the Pakistani-Afghan border. “It shows that in the absence of a strong man like Baitullah, it will be very difficult for the commanders to keep the TTP intact.”
The TTP is an alliance of 13 groups in which Mehsud was estimated to be commanding fighters numbering from 10,000 to more than 20,000. Divisions in TTP could see Mehsud loyalists subsumed by rival commanders.
Mehsud had long focused his attacks on the Pakistani security forces, unlike Afghan Taliban factions in the northwest which have concentrated on launching cross-border raids into Afghanistan.
He was accused of a series of bomb attacks in Pakistani cities in recent years, including the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007.
A splintering of the Pakistani Taliban would be a major coup for the government and would hamper the militants’ ability to mount co-ordinated action.
Another Mehsud aide, Wali-ur-Rehman, had earlier said he was looking after Taliban affairs, with another commander, because of Mehsud’s sickness.
Mohammad said neither Rehman nor any other leader had the right to appoint a TTP chief without consulting its 42-member shura, or leadership council.
The army has been battling Pakistani Taliban guerrillas loyal to Mehsud in different parts of the northwest for months, but the US also wants Pakistan to move against the factions battling western forces in Afghanistan.
Mr Yousufzai said the TTP might replace Mehsud with a strong leader from outside its ranks, maybe one more intent on fighting in Afghanistan, to keep the alliance intact.
Separately, 58 militants surrendered in the former Taliban bastion of Swat, northwest of Islamabad, the military said. Government forces have cleared most of the valley of Taliban fighters in a three-month offensive, but the militants have launched several attacks in recent days. – (Reuters)