Pakistan Taliban elects new chief, vows ‘unprecedented’ revenge

Khan Syed Mehsud elected new chief; security beefed up across Pakistan in wake of Mehsud’s killing  

Islamabad: The Pakistani Taliban on Saturday named Khan Syed Mehsud alias Sajna as its new chief, a day after a US drone strike killed its former leader Hakimullah Mehsud in the North Waziristan tribal region. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’s shura (council), media reports said.

Most of the members of the council were present in the meeting held at an undisclosed location though all could not attend it. All 43 members of the shura attending the meeting voted in favour of Sajna, Dawn News reported quoting people close to the matter.

It said the election was not confirmed by factions of the militant grouping. Sajna, 36, is believed to have been involved in an attack on a naval base in Karachi and is credited with masterminding a 2012 jailbreak in which the Taliban freed nearly 400 inmates in the northwestern city of Bannu.

“Sajna has no basic education, conventional or religious, but he is battle-hardened and has experience of fighting in Afghanistan,” an official had said earlier. Sajna was heading the South Waziristan Taliban. The council considered four names for the top post, including Sajna, Umar Khalid Khurasani, Mullah Fazlullah and Ghalib Mehsud.

Mohmand Taliban chief Umar Khalid Khurasani was a strong contender as he was the only surviving senior commander who had directly led operations under Hakimullah. Mullah Fazlullah, chief of the Swat Taliban, was another possible choice but he is currently in Afghanistan.

Mehsud, in his mid 30s, and five other Taliban militants were killed and two others wounded on Friday when a US drone targeted a compound as he left a meeting in Danday Darpakhel area of North Waziristan. They were buried on Saturday at undisclosed locations in different parts of North Waziristan. Meanwhile, enraged at the killing of its top leader, the Taliban has vowed to take “unprecedented” revenge for the attack in which the militant group alleges the Pakistani government was also involved.

“Our revenge will be unprecedented,” Abu Omar, a Taliban commander in North Waziristan, was quoted as saying by a report by The New York Times said. Omar said he considered the Pakistani government was also “fully complicit” in the drone strike. “We know our enemy very well,” he said.

Meanwhile, security has been beefed up across Pakistan in wake of Mehsud’s killing. “All precautions have been taken,” interior ministry spokesperson Omar Hameed Khan said.

Security was increased at all sensitive government installations across the country besides Islamabad. More policemen could be seen on the streets than normal days. The NYT report said that Mehsud’s killing has thrown into disarray plans by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to engage in peace talks with the Taliban with enraged militant commanders now vowing to repay Mehsud’s killing in bloodshed.

The drone strike came at a time when the government was all set to initiate peace talks with the Taliban to end the cycle of violence in the country that has killed at least 7,000 security personnel and nearly 40,000 people.

Pakistan will not allow the death of the Taliban leader to derail proposed peace talks, the information minister Pervez Rasheed said on Saturday.

Rasheed told reporters the government wanted to press ahead with its plan to negotiate with Mehsud’s Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

“We can say that this time drone struck the peace talks but we will not let the peace talks die,” Rasheed said. PTI