By DPA,
Islamabad : Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of the Pakistani Taliban, has been killed, a close aide to the militant leader said Friday, adding that a meeting was being held to “choose his successor”.
He died with his wife Wednesday in north-western Pakistan in a suspected US missile attack that also killed half a dozen of his security guards, said the warlord’s aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Mehsud’s funeral was performed Wednesday afternoon and his body was later buried in Margosa village, the Taliban leader said.
“Right now, a meeting of our ‘shura’ (an advisory council of Mehsud’s group) is being held in Sararogha to choose his successor,” the aide said.
The Taliban were expected to announce Mehsud’s death after Friday prayers together with the announcement of his successor. Among those being considered are his spokesman Hakimullah, Azmatullah and Wali Ur Rehman.
Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik said initial reports said Mehsud has been killed with his wife, a brother-in-law and seven bodyguards.
The missile strike, believed to have been carried out by a US unmanned ‘drone’ aircraft, struck the house of one of Mehsud’s two fathers-in-law in South Waziristan, a tribal region near the Afghan border and a known hub of Al Qaeda and Taliban militants.
The strike came as Pakistani security forces were gearing up for a major offensive against Mehsud, who is blamed for dozens of terrorist attacks across the country and had been declared Pakistan’s enemy number one.