Pakistan’s Taliban, one of the world’s most feared militant groups, are preparing for a leadership change.
The change of leadership could mean less violence against Pakistan but more attacks against US-led forces in Afghanistan, Pakistani military sources said.
Hakimullah Mehsud, a ruthless commander who has led the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for the last three years, has lost operational control of the movement and the trust of his fighters, said a senior Pakistan Army official based in the South Waziristan tribal region, the group’s stronghold.
The organisation’s more moderate deputy leader, Waliur Rehman, 40, is poised to succeed Mehsud, whose extreme violence has alienated enough of his fighters to significantly weaken him, the military sources told Reuters.
“Rehman is fast emerging as a consensus candidate to formally replace Hakimullah,” said the army official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. “Now we may see the brutal commander replaced by a more pragmatic one for whom reconciliation has become a priority.”
Reuters interviewed several senior Pakistan military officials as well as tribal elders and locals during a three-day trip with the army in South Waziristan last week, getting rare access to an area that has been a virtual no-go zone for journalists since an army offensive was launched in October 2009.
Three senior military officials said informers in the Pakistan Taliban told them Mehsud was no longer steering the group. Pakistan Taliban commanders did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the possible leadership change.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 7th, 2012.
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Pak military strategy of hobnobbing with militants continues despite ruthless killing of 40000 innocent people at their hands for the past five years. The military and intelligence agencies rather than eliminating these barbarians have been working overtime to find favorable replacement of their leaders who do not attack them and may also spare the poor civilians as well. The strategy of diverting TTP to Afghanistan for jihad is bound to fail as Afghan Taliban is already sensing victory since being pleaded for negotiations by Afghanistan and US, are unlikely to accommodate them. As such, TTP has its fixed objective of enforcing Sharia in Pakistan and rule the country after their comrades take over the reigns in Afghanistan. But, who can challenge or stop this decades old self-destructive strategy of the military in Pakistan which has already brought the country to brink and only awaiting for final collapse to happen.