Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud dead: Qureshi

Missiles fired from US drone killed Pakistan's most wanted terrorist Baitullah Mehsud and his wife sheltering in his father-in-law's house in Makeen area of South Waziristan.

Striking a body blow to Taliban,missiles fired from US drone killed Pakistan’s most wanted terrorist Baitullah Mehsud and his wife sheltering in his father-in-law’s house in Makeen area of South Waziristan.

Quoting intelligence inputs,Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said,”Authorities are going to the site of the missile strike to verify the Taliban leader’s death.”

“According to my information,this news is correct and he (Mehsud) has been taken out,” he said.

“Our reports are based on the internal intelligence inputs. We will be 100 per cent sure when we get the physical verification,” Qureshi told reporters on the sidelines of an official function in Islamabad.

The US drone fired two missiles at the compound of Mehsud’s father-in-law,a cleric named Malik Ikramuddin on Wednesday. Earlier reports had said Ikramuddin’s daughter,who is Mehsud’s second wife,was killed along with some militants.

Though Pakistani ministers and US officials were trying to get the verification,TV channels quoted sources in the tribal areas as saying that the ‘Shura’ or supreme council of the Pakistani Taliban had met yesterday and would gather again this evening,possibly to chose Mehsud’s successor.

Taliban might own up 35-year-old Mehsud’s death only after choosing a new chief for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan,an umbrella of militant factions.

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Interior Minister Rehman Malik also said government has received information that Mehsud was killed in a drone attack in the tribal belt,but we are awaiting official confirmation.

Malik made it clear that whether Mehsud was dead or alive,the military will continue its action till Taliban’s whole network is destroyed.

Mehsud’s death is big success for both Pakistan and the US,who has announced a five million USD bounty on his head. Pakistan had also offered a bounty of USD 615,000.

The burly al-Qaeda-linked warlord has been the target of an intense manhunt for months and has reportedly narrowly escaped previous attacks.

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TV channels quoted intelligence officials as saying that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief charged with plotting the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and a spate of suicide attacks across the country had been killed in the CIA missile attack and his body buried nearby the village of Nardusai deep inside Taliban control area.

Dawn News channel reported that Mehsud’s funeral prayers were held in Narkosa village.

In Mehsud’s death,US missile strikes have found their one of the most high-value targets till date. According to security experts,the Taliban commanders has deputies who could take his place. But whether a new leader could wreck as much havoc as Mehsud did could depend largely on how much pressure Pakistan military continues to put on the network.

Reports said Hakeemullah Mehsud,a brutal militant commander now based in Orakzai Agency,was being tipped as the most likely successor of Mehsud.