Hakimullah Mehsud Lives!

When Pakistan’s insurgent leader Baitullah Mehsud was killed on August 7 by a CIA missile fired from an unmanned drone, it was widely believed that a power struggle would follow within his Taliban group. Hakimullah Mehsud was one of Baitullah’s lieutenants and the next in line for leadership of the 20,000-strong insurgent force, based in Pakistan’s volatile south Waziristan. But Hakimullah was thought to be killed in intra-insurgent fighting immediately preceding Baitullah’s death.

Turns out that rumors of Hakimullah’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

A few days ago he gave a special audience to a group of reporters, among them a TV crew from Al Jazeera which filed this report. At his side were some of  the very insurgent rivals who were thought to have killed him at the end of the summer. He vowed to avenge the death of his predecessor by hitting back at US soldiers in Afghanistan and the Pakistani government in Islamabad.

The Pakistani army is gearing up for a major offensive in south Waziristan and Hakimullah Mehsud will likely be a major target. There is talk of disarray among Pakistani insurgents, in part because of the deaths of leaders like Hakimullah in drone strikes. But if this guy is alive, who knows what other presumed dead leaders are still walking on two feet.

The Pakistani army will find out soon enough.