Pakistan Taliban secretly bury leaderslain by US drone, vow bombs in revenge

DERA ISMAIL KHAN - Reuters

This file photograph taken on November 26, 2008, shows Pakistani Taliban commander Hakimullah Mehsud speaking to a group of media representatives in the Mamouzai area of Orakzai Agency. A US drone strike in northwest Pakistan killed Mehsud on Nov. 1. AFP photo

Pakistani Taliban fighters secretly buried their leader early on Nov. 2 after he was killed by a U.S. drone aircraft and quickly moved to replace him while vowing a wave of suicide bombs in revenge.

The Pakistani government denounced the killing of Hakimullah Mehsud as a U.S bid to derail planned peace talks and some politicians demanded that U.S. military supply lines into Afghanistan be blocked in response.

Mehsud, who had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, and three others were killed on Nov. 1 in the militant stronghold of Miranshah in northwest Pakistan, Pakistani security officials and militants said. 

Mehsud's vehicle was hit after he attended a meeting of Taliban leaders, a Pakistani Taliban fighter said, adding Mehsud's body was "damaged but recognisable". His bodyguard and driver were also killed. 

He was secretly buried under cover of darkness in the early hours by a few companions amid fears that his funeral might be attacked by U.S. drones, militants and Pakistani security sources said.

"Every drop of Hakimullah's blood will turn into a suicide bomber," said Azam Tariq, a Pakistani Taliban spokesman.

"America and their friends shouldn't be happy because we will take revenge for our martyr's blood."
 Mehsud took over as leader of the al-Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban in 2009. The group's two previous leaders were killed in attacks by U.S. missile-firing drones.

Taliban commanders voted to replace him with the movement's number two, Khan Said, who is also known as Sajna. 

Said is believed to have masterminded an attack on a jail in northwest Pakistan that freed nearly 400 prisoners in 2012 and a big attack on a Pakistani naval base.

But some commanders were unhappy with the choice and wanted more talks, several militants said, indicating divisions within the Pakistani Taliban, an umbrella group of factions allied with the Afghan Taliban and battling the Pakistani state in the hope of imposing Islamist rule.

They have killed thousands of Pakistani civilians and numerous members of the security forces. They claimed the killing of an army general in September. 

In Washington, two U.S. officials also confirmed Mehsud's death in a CIA drone strike. A White House spokeswoman said he was not in a position to confirm the report but if true, it would be a serious loss for the Pakistani Taliban.

In 2010, Mehsud appeared in a farewell video with a Jordanian suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees at a base in Afghanistan.
 
'Attack on talks'

Mehsud was in his mid-30s and had a sharp face framed by a beard and a tangle of long hair, usually flowing from beneath a traditional Afghan hat.

Despite his reputation as an uncompromising militant commander, Pakistan's new government had promised to try to stop the violence through peace talks and it reacted angrily to Mehsud's killing.

"The U.S. has tried to attack the peace talks with this drone but we will not let them fail," Information Minister Pervez Rashid told media, referring to the negotiations, which the Taliban said Nov. 1 had yet to start.

Shah Farman, a spokesman for the government of the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said provincial legislators would pass a resolution on Monday to cut NATO supply lines into landlocked Afghanistan. A main one passes through the nearby Khyber Pass.

The supply lines through U.S. ally Pakistan have been crucial since the latest Afghan war began in 2001 and remain vital as the United States and other Western forces prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of next year.