(FILES) In this photograph taken on May 16, 2011 Pakistani Taliban senior commander Waliur Rehman holds his AK-47 assault rifle as he talks to local media representatives in Paikistan’s tribal belt of South Waziristan close to border with Afghanistan. (AFP Photo)
The previous deputy commander, Wali-ur-Rehman, was killed in an attack by a missile-firing U.S. drone aircraft in the militant stronghold of North Waziristan, on northwest Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, on Wednesday, Pakistani security officials and militants said.
A Pakistani Taliban committee met late on Wednesday to chose a new deputy after Wali-ur-Rehman was buried in a low-key ceremony, three Taliban members told Reuters.
The Taliban members said the new number two, Khan Said, 38, had served as Rehman’s deputy. He was involved in planning a 2011 attack on a Pakistani navy base in Karachi in which 18 people were killed and a 2012 jail break in which nearly 400 militant inmates escaped, they said.
“There was absolute consensus over Khan Said,” one Pakistani Taliban member said.
Wednesday’s drone strike, that killed six other people, was the first in Pakistan since a May 11 general election in which strikes by the unmanned U.S. aircraft was a major issue.
It was also the first reported U.S. drone strike since President Barack Obama announced last week that the United States was scaling back the drone programme.
The Pakistani Taliban are a separate entity to the Afghan Taliban, though allied with them. Known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, they have launched devastating attacks against the Pakistani military and civilians.
Wali-ur-Rehman had been tipped to succeed Hakimullah Mehsud as leader of the Pakistan Taliban and had been viewed as someone less hostile to the Pakistani military than some other top operatives.
PEACE EFFORT?
While his death is a major blow for the militants, it could be also viewed as a setback for incoming Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s efforts to end violence.
He criticised drone strikes during the election campaign, describing them at one point as a “challenge” to Pakistan’s sovereignty. Sharif also offered to hold talks with the militants, something that now looked less likely, according to one senior security official.
“Wali-ur-Rehman was a serious and mature man, his death could hurt prospects for an expected peace initiative considered by the new government,” the official told Reuters.
However, many observers said any meaningful settlement with the Taliban was unlikely in any case given Sharif’s condition that the starting point for talks be respect for the country’s democratic order and institutions.
The White House did not confirm the killing, in line with its practice not to discuss drone strikes.
But its spokesman Jay Carney said Wali-ur-Rehman “has participated in cross-border attacks in Afghanistan against U.S. and NATO personnel and horrific attacks against Pakistani civilians and soldiers”.
Drones armed with missiles have carried out numerous strikes against militants in the North Waziristan Pashtun tribal region over the past seven years, sometimes with heavy civilian casualties.
A U.S. drone killed Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud in 2009. There had been several reports that his successor, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed the same way but they turned out to be false.
North Waziristan has long been a stronghold of militants including Afghan Taliban and their al Qaeda and Pakistani Taliban allies.