Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the self-styled Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has finally been confirmed dead by the new leader Hakimullah Mehsud. Earlier, Taliban leaders had repeatedly denied official claims that BM had been killed in the August 5 Predator strike even after the captured Maulvi Umar, erstwhile spokesperson of the TTP, had informed interrogators that BM was indeed dead.

Between Hakimullah’s ascension to the TTP throne and BM’s removal from the scene had entered Faqir Mohammad, the Taliban leader from Bajaur who has been on the run since the Frontier Corps conducted the operation in that Agency. In an oblique manner, Faqir, who took over as acting head of the TTP, confirmed BM’s death when he said that he (Faqir) was taking over because BM “is very ill”.

One thing is certain, confirmed both by intelligence sources and reporters on the beat: the TTP is in disarray. There was a power struggle after BM’s killing with Faqir Mohammad, Waliur Rehman and Hakimullah Mehsud vying for the crown. The government had also insisted that Wali and Hakimullah were dead, killed in a shootout during a meeting to decide the contentious leadership issue.

However, Wali and Hakimullah apparently called up TV channels on consecutive days and denied that there was a shootout or they were dead. The government’s riposte was that calls were made by people impersonating the two TTP leaders.

Even if they are not dead, and the Hakimullah who has taken over is not the twin brother of a dead Hakimullah, as Interior Minister Rehman Malik continues to claim, there is enough evidence to suggest that the TTP is on the backfoot and Mullah Omar and the Al Qaeda were, and are, trying to stitch up differences through Sirajuddin Haqqani to retain the TTP’s cohesion and make it operationally viable again.

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