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Hakimullah Mehsud took charge of the Pakistani Taliban about six months ago. (Associated Press/ File 2008) |
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Evidence mounted yesterday that the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, an extremist Islamic militia with close links to Al Qaeda and a record of major suicide bombings, has died of burns and other injuries he received during a recent US missile strike in Pakistan’s northwest tribal region.
The death of Hakimullah Mehsud, first reported Sunday on Pakistani state television, has not been officially confirmed by Pakistan’s government, and Taliban spokesmen continued to deny it yesterday.
But one Pakistani official said he was “80 percent’’ certain that Mehsud was dead, and a senior US military official also said he believed the militia leader died. In addition, both a tribal leader and a Taliban official, speaking on condition of anonymity, gave similar descriptions of Mehsud’s severe injuries after the mid-January missile strike.
Mehsud’s demise less than six months after the killing of his predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, in another US drone missile attack would leave the once-predatory and feared militia effectively decapitated at a time when its fighters are under siege by the Pakistan army.
Analysts in Pakistan said it would be extremely difficult for the Taliban to recover from the loss of both leaders, especially given the precipitous decline in public support for the militia and its increasing isolation from elders of the Mehsud tribe, who are now negotiating with the government to hand over surviving Taliban commanders.
Imtiaz Gul, director of the Center for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad, said revelations that Mehsud was involved in the suicide attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan in December were “a real turning point. He became a prime target.’’
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