Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Chief Hakimullah Mehsud killed in US Drone attack
Hakimullah Mehsud, chief of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), was killed in a US drone strike in the North Waziristan tribal region on Friday, intelligence officials and the Pakistani Taliban said.
Intelligence officials said the Pakistani Taliban supremo was leaving a meeting at a mosque in Dande Darpakhel area of North Waziristan when the drone targeted the vehicle he was travelling in.
Drones continued to fly over North Waziristan on Saturday. Witnesses in the towns of Mir Ali and Miramshah reported that Mehsud’s supporters were firing at them in anger.
Pakistani Taliban militants said funerals for the TTP chief and other militants killed in the drone strike were held on Saturday in various parts of North Waziristan.
They further said that a meeting of the Taliban central shura (council) was underway at an undisclosed location to decide over the next leader of the militant organisation adding that their decision in this regards was expected to be made today.
Five militants, including Abdullah Bahar Mehsud and Tariq Mehsud, both key commanders and close aides of the TTP chief, were also killed with two others injured in the drone strike, multiple sources confirmed.
Some of the sources said that a cousin and a paternal uncle of the proscribed organisation’s chief were among those killed in the drone strike.
Taliban sources told Dawn.com that Hakimullah was shifted to a hospital in the wake of the drone attack but succumbed to his injuries on the way.
In the first eyewitness account of his death, a Taliban fighter said on Saturday that leader Hakimullah Mehsud’s body was “damaged but recognisable” after a US drone strike hit his vehicle,
Locals said the drones had been carrying out low flights in various parts of North Waziristan since Friday morning.
The area of Dande Darpakhel is located five kilometres (three miles) north of Miramshah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region, and is said to be a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban.
