TTP Confirmed Fazlullah’s Killing In Missile Strike Announcing New Leader
TTP Confirmed Fazlullah’s Killing In Missile Strike Announcing New Leader: The militant group confirmed for the first time its former chief Maulana Fazlullah was killed in a US drone strike last week.
The group’s shura council elected Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud to replace him, he added.
Fazlullah is believed to have ordered the failed 2012 assassination of Malala Yousafzai, who became a global symbol of the fight for girls´ rights to schooling, and who later won the Nobel Peace Prize.
In contrast to Fazlullah’s infamous brutality, the new TTP leader has a scholastic and literary background.
Mehsud, 40, studied at a number of religious seminaries in Pakistan to specialise in different fields of religious teaching. He served as a deputy to Baitullah Mehsud, who has been blamed for the 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
The new leader Mehsud earlier this year authored a book in which he described the planning of Bhutto’s assassination, identifying the militants involved, including one who is still at large and believed to be hiding in South Waziristan.
Mehsud also fought against the US-backed Northern Alliance in Afghanistan and took part in TTP attacks against Pakistani security forces.
He hails from Gorgoray area of Sararogha tehsil and belongs to Mechikhel, a sub-clan of the Mehsud tribe. He also remained a qazi (judge) of Sharia court established by Baitullah Mehsud.
“With the appointment of Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud the leadership of TTP has returned to Mehsud tribe in its home base South Waziristan as Fazlullah was from Swat,” Rahimullah Yusufzai, an acclaimed journalist and expert on the Taliban, told AFP.
Mehsud’s leadership could see the breakaway factions which emerged in the TTP after Fazlullah fled to Afghanistan in 2009 reunite, Yusufzai said.
The Pakistan Army has called Fazlullah’s apparent death a “positive development”.
Pakistan army kills 6 terrorists
The Pakistan Army has killed six terrorists during Operation Raddul Fassad, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), media wing of the army.
Pak Army personnel Razzaq Khan and Mumtaz Hussain were martyred in the operation that was carried in Ladha area of Waziristan, the ISPR said.
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