Hydra Mehsud


Quatrina Hosain May 03, 2010

Tehreek-i-Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud seems to be Pakistan’s own version of Freddy Krueger of Friday the 13th fame. After much speculation over whether he was killed in a January drone strike on the border near Afghanistan, an ISI official told Declan Walsh, The Guardian correspondent in Islamabad last week, that Mehsud had been injured but survived.

The Obama administration had earlier said it was 90 per cent certain that he had died after the January 14 drone strike, a view later corroborated by Interior Minister Rehman Malik. This wasn’t the first report of Mehsud’s death. After Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a drone strike in August last year, Hakimullah Mehsud was reported killed in a war of succession within the ranks of the Taliban by Waliur Rehman.

That report died because Mehsud did not. He went on to become as fearsome, if not more, than his predecessor Baitullah Mehsud. Under his leadership the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan became Pakistan’s most feared entity, carrying out multiple suicide bombings that left hundreds dead across Pakistan. He also took credit for last December’s suicide bombing at a CIA base in Khost, Afghanistan, that killed seven people of whom at least five were CIA officials.

It now appears that Mehsud has risen from the dead like a Hollywood style evil killer in unending and nauseating sequels. But where is he? Reports suggest that he has lost much of his influence within the ranks of the Taliban after he disappeared following the January attack. Could he possibly be in the custody of intelligence agencies, either domestic or American? These questions are likely to remain unanswered for now given Pakistan’s rather hysterical reaction to reports of him still being alive.

The knee-jerk reaction of the federal government to reports that Hakimullah Mehsud is alive took me more by surprise than the report that Mehsud was still alive. Federal Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira lashed out at me in a live television show saying I shouldn’t even be discussing Mehsud, dead or alive, arguing that he was a criminal. With me on the show was Declan Walsh, the journalist who broke the story. I repeatedly tried to convince Mr Kaira that we were not lionising Mehsud but were discussing the impact this information would have.

But the icing on the cake was Mr Kaira suggesting that my raising the issue that Mehsud was still alive would “scare people.” Scare people? Mr Kaira, the people are scared all the time whether we discuss Mehsud or the weather. We live under a perpetual fog of uncertainty and fear. We suppress the fear because life must go on and we cannot cower in our homes surrounded by high walls and a platoon of guards. Our lives will not change whether Hakimullah Mehsud is discussed on TV or not.

We will not feel more secure if the government tries to wave away hard facts or tell us half-truths and, more often, outright lies. The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan is a Hydra-headed monster. No matter how many heads are cut off, there will be more that will grow. That is the hard truth we have accepted, albeit reluctantly. We know that we are in for the long haul and this war will not go away overnight. What I wish would go away is the unending capacity of the government to fool itself and the people.

Click the video tab above to view Hakimullah Mehsud's latest video.

COMMENTS (6)

Yasir Qadeer | 14 years ago | Reply I agree with the author that it’s not only the leadership we need to tackle but all of them. But it should also be noted that the leadership is hunted down because of its symbolic value to that organization. Mehsud or an unknown terrorist are criminals of the same degree. The only difference is that Mehsud symbolizes the TTP and his killing will have a major effect on the morale of the organization.
Ammar | 14 years ago | Reply It is a good business to first put a show on certain topic on television and then write the minutes of that show in the news paper as your opinion. I am impressed! Secondly what else this e-media, the writer representing, has done but inspiring the youth by showing the murderers as heroes for the last 2 decades or so? Now suddenly this war is considered (for obvious reasons) to be our own? In the very near past, BaitUllah Mehsood was a source of inspiration according to our media, and today we are concerned about the wrong news of death of HakimUllah, why? Why is this hypocrisy? Why??? Can we see the sanity in our electronic media?
VIEW MORE COMMENTS
Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ