Islamabad, August 08: The Pakistan Taliban were meeting last night to choose a new leader after Baitullah Mehsud, Pakistan’s most wanted man, was killed in a CIA-led air strike, dealing a major blow to the insurgency that has ravaged the north-west and the wild tribal areas along the Afghan border.
“According to my intelligence sources, Mehsud has been taken out,” said Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister. Pakistani officials are carrying out “on-the-ground verification to be 100 per cent sure.” The remote area in South Waziristan is a Taliban stronghold and difficult to access.
Kafayat Ullah, a junior Taliban commander, confirmed his leader’s slaying: “[He] and his wife died in the American missile attack in South Waziristan,” he told the Associated Press. Pakistani intelligence sources said Mr Mehsud had already been buried in his home village of Nargosai.
–Agencies