‘Hakimullah alive but pushed to background’

The Taliban had always claimed Mehsud was alive,but said they were not going to offer any evidence such as a video recording because doing so could help security forces hunt him. Until or unless they do,questions are likely to remain over his fate,given the patchy nature of intelligence from tribal regions.

Four intelligence officials said Pakistan’s main spy agency now believed Mehsud was alive and well. They cited electronic surveillance and reports from sources in the field,including from inside the Taliban. One official said Mehsud was believed to have been wounded in the attack and had been seen alive. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they work for the spy agencies.

One senior official said Mehsud was no longer the major force in the movement,which has carried out scores of attacks in Pakistan in recent years and is allied to al-Qaeda and militants in Afghanistan fighting US and NATO troops. He said other Taliban commanders,such as Waliur Rehman,were now overshadowing him.

On Febuary 10,Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik,confirmed that Hakimullah was dead. On February 3,a senior US intelligence official,speaking on condition of anonymity,said that the best information of US intelligence agencies was that the militant was dead.

The US has expanded its missile strike program in northwest Pakistan over the last 20 months. In January,Mehsud appeared in a video with a Jordanian suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees in late December in eastern Afghanistan.