New spokesman of Pakistani Taliban confirms Mehsud dead: TV

PAKISTAN/

ISLAMABAD,   The Pakistani Taliban has confirmed on Monday that the group’s chief, Baitullah Mehsud, had been killed in a U.S. drone strike on Wednesday, and announced a 15-day mourning period, a private TV channel reported Tuesday.

The reports said the newly-appointed spokesman of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Azam Tariq told the channel that the TTP would observe a ceasefire during mourning period. He said a successor to Mehsud had not been chosen yet.

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik also insisted in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, that a doctor who treated Mehsud has also confirmed that he had died in the night between Aug. 5 and Aug. 6.

Earlier on Monday, however, a main TTP spokesman Hakimullah Mehsud said the Taliban chief is alive and that he will present proofs to substantiate his claim.

“I challenge Rehman Malik to prove that Baitullah is dead,” Hakimullah, who was reportedly killed in a shootout on Friday, told journalists over the telephone.

However, Hakimullah’s statement that Baitullah is healthy contradicts a statement by another Taliban leader, Maulana Noor Syed, who claimed the TTP chief “is seriously ill.”

Meanwhile, the United States is “pretty sure” that Baitullah has been killed, White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton said on Monday. He said the development “shows that Pakistan has made progress in moving to root out extremists.”

Pakistan’s most wanted militant commander, Baitullah Mehsud, was reportedly killed along with his wife and bodyguards by the U.S. missile attack on Wednesday in northwestern Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal agency, part of the lawless tribal regions along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. The other leaders of the group have held meeting to elect a new chief since Friday.

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