Good riddance, killer Baitullah
PESHAWAR: Pakistans most dreaded Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a US Predator strike, a senior security official confirmed.
This is one hundred per cent. We have no doubt about his death, the official said, requesting he not be named. He is dead and buried.
The US is believed to have shared with the Pakistani authorities a video feed of the drone strike which, according to credible sources, has left no room for doubt that the most feared man in Pakistan was indeed dead.
One of the missiles, according to the sources, hit the roof of the upper-storey of the house, killing Baitullah and his younger wife for less than a year.
He was clearly visible with his wife, a senior security official, who saw the video footage, said. And the missile hit the target as it was. His torso remained, while half of the body was blown up.
The strike also hit the vehicle that had brought Baitullah to the house of his father-in-law Malik Ikramuddin who had been shuttling between his son-in-law and the government to negotiate a new peace deal.
The Taliban immediately shut down the three telephone lines in Zanghara and threw a five-kilometre security cordon around the area to block the leakage of news about the death of their leader.
The news of Baitullahs possible death was in the air since Wednesdays drone attack that according to initial reports had killed his wife and father-in-law.
On Thursday night information that he too had been killed had started coming out of the Mehsud territory in bits and pieces, and throughout the day it remained the only topic of discussion within the country.
Initially, the government was quite reluctant to openly confirm the news. In his uncharacteristically cautious remarks Interior Minister Rehman Malik said he had information but no evidence to suggest that the TTP leader had in fact been killed.
A few hours later, the first confirmation of sorts came from the foreign minister. Yes my intelligence sources have confirmed that he has been killed, Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters in Islamabad. But he too qualified it by saying that it needed to be authenticated through other means.
A report suggested that Baitullah might have been buried in Nargosha area of Shabikhel a place his father had abandoned after developing a blood feud before moving to Bannu to serve as a prayer leader in a mosque in Landi Dhok.
It is understood that the strike to take out Baitullah was the outcome of a joint Pakistan-US intelligence operation that may, according to some officials, indicate a new level of trust between the often mutually suspicious intelligence agencies of the two countries.
The Taliban have withheld an announcement about the death of their leader, pending nomination of his successor, amid intelligence reports that a Mehsud militant shura met for the third day running at a secret location in Ludda in the volatile South Waziristan to nominate a new leader.
The meeting short-listed three candidates but stopped short of naming one, suggesting a power struggle among main contenders, a senior government official said.
Waliur Rehman, a deputy to Baitullah, is said to be leading the list with majority of shura members siding with him.
The forty-something Wali is Baitullahs cousin and an Alizai Mehsud by tribe and hails from the village of Tangi in Serwekai.
The next on the list is the young, brash and aggressive Hakeemullah Mehsud, until very recently Baitullahs commander for Kurram, Orakzai and Khyber tribal regions before he was recalled to South Waziristan to face off a possible military operation.
Hakeemullah, who once worked as Baitullahs driver, was considered to be very close to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan leader and was widely considered to be his likely successor.
Baitullah had groomed him well for the task, a senior military official said. He could be a natural choice, but his shooting-from-the-hip attitude may actually down his chances.
The third in the line of serious contenders is little known 50-year-old Azmatullah Mehsud, a Taliban commander in Barwand.
The failure by the shura to quickly come up with a Baitullah successor indicates a power struggle within the key players, a senior government official said.
Its not just the key players within the Mehsud clans wanting the mantle of leadership, the Ahmadzai Wazir militants in Wana and the Utmankhels leader in Miramshah would like to take on the mantle. They are lobbying and jockeying for power, the official said.
And I think the Haqqani-Al Qaeda network will play a pivotal role in the whole process, the official said, referring to Siraj Haqqani, son of veteran Taliban leader Jalaluddin Haqqani.
The young Haqqani, often referred to as Khalifa Siraj, is Mullah Omars pointman for North and South Waziristan. Baitullah had taken oath of allegiance to Khalifa Siraj, who had helped the 37-year-old gain leadership of the Taliban in South Waziristan at the expense of the one-legged former Guantanamo detainee, Abdullah Mehsud.
But government and security officials watching the scene unfolding in South Waziristan say Baitullahs death is a major setback for the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.
This is a big setback for them. Baitullah was a phenomenon. It will take them a considerable time to regain their composure, the security official said.
The man has taken a lot of secrets with himself and for any successor will need a lot of time to rebuild and re-establish various linkages and connect the dots, the official said.
He was the Osama bin Laden of Pakistan, remarked a senior analyst. Consider the damage his death would cause to his movement.
The TTP has suffered major setbacks in Bajaur, Mohmand and Swat and the death of Baitullah will further dent its strength, the official said. It may now longer be the TTP that we knew, he remarked.
Still some security officials warned it was too early to write off the TTP. You will have to wait to see who succeeds Baitullah before making any presumptions. A lot will depend on the character of the man who steps into Baitullahs shoes. There will be call for blood and revenge from the rank and file of the Taliban and then he will also have to establish his credentials and leadership. So there may be some fireworks in the offing, one official remarked.
DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Good riddance, killer Baitullah
