‘Credible’ intelligence about Hakeemullah’s death, no proof yet: Malik
By ANIThursday, March 25, 2010
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said that he has a ‘credible’ intelligence report that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakeemullah Mehsud is dead.
Malik, however, said he could not confirm Hakeemullah’s death, as he has not seen the extremist commander’s dead body.
“I cannot confirm Mehsud’s death, but if he is alive then he must appear on television,” The Daily Times quoted Malik, as saying.
Hakeemullah replaced Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a US drone strike in August last year.
Hakeemullah had released an audiotape confirming he was alive, just two days after media reported that he has died of injuries sustained during a US drone strike in North Waziristan on January 14.
Last month, another rumuor surfaced that Maulvi Noor Jamal, a local Taliban commander in the restive Orakzai tribal agency, had replaced Hakeemullah. (ANI)
