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Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud killed in drone attack
 [Dawn] Hakimullah Mehsud, the chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), was killed in a US drone strike in North Wazoo tribal agency on Friday, intelligence officials and Pak Taliban said.Intelligence officials said the Pak Taliban supremo was leaving from a meeting at a mosque in Dande Darpakhel area of North Waziristan when the drone targeted their vehicle. Pak Talibs said that funeral for the TTP chief will be held tomorrow afternoon at Pakistain government is, however, yet to confirm the death of Hakimullah Mehsud. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told a private TV channel that he could not confirm reports of the TTP chief's death.  Five Death Eaters, including Abdullah Bahar Mehsud and Tariq Mehsud, both key Death Eater commanders and close aides of the TTP chief, were also killed with two others injured in the drone strike, multiple sources confirmed.The Taliban sources told Dawn.com that Hakimullah was shifted to a hospital after the drone strike but he departed this vale of tears on the way. The locals said the drones had been carrying out low flights in various parts of North Waziristan since morning. The South Waziristan Taliban chief, Khan Said Sajna alias Khalid is likely to succeed Hakimullah Mehsud as TTP chief. Chief of Mohmand Taliban Umar Khalid Khurasani is also a strong contestant for the slot as he is the only surviving senior Taliban capo who had directly commanded operations under Hakimullah. Mullah Fazlullah  ...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullah's Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan... , the chief of the Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... Taliban, is another senior Taliban capo but unlikely to replace the assassinated TTP chief for not belonging to Mehsud clan. Foreign news agency AP reports that a senior US intelligence official confirmed the strike overnight, saying the US received positive confirmation Friday morning that he had been killed. The CIA and the White House declined to comment on the reported death. The US National Counterterrorism Center describes Mehsud as "the self-proclaimed amir of the Pak Taliban." Speaking to Dawn, Jen Psaki, the spokesperson for the US State Department said: "We have seen those reports but we don't have anything for you on that. The reports just came out. We have a close cooperative relationship with Pakistain on various issues, including counter-terrorism but I do not have anything specific for you on Pakistain on this report." Reacting to the incident, Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) chief Imran Khan  ... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight... -- a strong opponent of US drone strikes -- demanded the government to immediately block the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... supplies going through the country. His party is set to table resolutions in KP Assembly and National Assembly on Monday in this regard. Mehsud has been reported dead several times before. But late on Friday, several intelligence, army and Death Eater sources across the country confirmed he had been killed in the strike in the lawless North Waziristan region bordering Afghanistan. Meanwhile, ...back at the the conspirators' cleverly concealed hideout the long-awaited message arrived. They quickly got to work with their decoder rings... strongly condemning the Friday's US drone attack in North Waziristan, Pakistain government reiterated that these strikes are a violation of illusory sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. Foreign Office Spokesman Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry in a statement said that there was an across the board consensus in Pakistain that these drone strikes must end. He said the government has consistently maintained that drone strikes are counter-productive, entail loss of innocent civilian lives and have human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedomat the convenience of the state... and humanitarian implications. Such strikes also set dangerous precedents in the inter-state relations, he added. The front man said these strikes have a negative impact on the mutual desire of both US and Pakistain to forge a cordial and cooperative relationship and to ensure peace and stability in the region. Hakimullah Mehsud: A brief profile Dande Darpakhel area is located five kilometres (three miles) north of Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministatein centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... , the main town of the North Waziristan tribal region, said to be a stronghold for the Pak Taliban. The strike came a day after three Death Eaters were killed in another drone attack that also targeted an al-Qaeda fortress near Miranshah. The US unmanned plane was still flying in the area after the attack. Condemning the drone strikes, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar had earlier said these were aimed at sabotaging efforts to establish peace in the country. "A delegation was about to be sent to talk to Taliban tomorrow (Saturday)," said the minister hinting that a "senior Death Eater commander" may have been killed in today's strike. Pak Taliban front man Shahidullah Shahid earlier today said they have had "no contact" with the government, a day after Prime Minister  Nawaz Sharif... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... said a process to initiate peace talks had been started. The incident comes a week after Sharif urged US President Barack Obama Republicans can come along for the ride, but they've got to sit in the back... to stop drone strikes during a meeting in Washington. The Pak defence ministry Wednesday said 317 US drone strikes in the country's tribal areas had killed 67 civilians and 2,160 bully boyz in Pakistain since 2008. US drone attacks are deeply unpopular in Pakistain, but Washington sees them as a vital tool in the fight against bully boyz in the lawless tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan. The Pak government has repeatedly protested against drone strikes as a violation of its illusory sovereignty. But privately officials have been reported as saying the attacks can be useful in removing bully boyz from the country. Posted by: Fred 2013-11-02 |
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