Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud’s brother killed in Pak

ISLAMABAD - Former Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud’s brother Yaqoob Mehsud was reportedly shot dead by unidentified assailants in the tribal belt of North Waziristan in Pakistan on Monday.

According to reports, Yaqoob’s body was recovered from a field in Mir Ali, but it is yet to be determined who is responsible for his death.

Sources have confirmed the assassination, but the man is yet to be identified as Baitullah’s brother.

Baitullah was reportedly killed in a US drone strike in August 2009. He was involved in numerous terror attacks in the country over the years, and is believed to be the mastermind behind former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.

A TTP spokesman had earlier claimed that Mehsud had fled the area before the drone attack.

“Hakimullah Mehsud was present at the same place in Shaktoi where the drone attack took place. But he had left the place already when the drone attack took place. He is alive and completely safe,” TTP spokesman Azam Tariq had said. (ANI)