Pakistani Taliban leader: I’m not dead
Pakistani Taliban militants issued an audio tape on Saturday which they said was of their leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, and proved he had not been killed in a U.S. strike two days ago.Pakistani security officials said on Thursday that a U.S. drone had targeted Mehsud in the South Waziristan region on the Afghan border but it was not known if he was among about 12 militants killed.The Taliban said Mehsud had escaped the missile strike but one militant official said on Friday he had been wounded.
Apparently determined to show their leader was alive, the Taliban produced a tape recording on Friday which they said contained Mehsud's voice. But there was no proof it was him speaking or when it had been made.
A Pakistani Taliban spokesman, Azim Tariq, telephoned a Reuters reporter on Saturday and played another tape over the phone.
A man on the tape referred to the rumors of Mehsud's death over the last two days and said he was issuing the tape on Saturday through his spokesman. The reporter who listened to the tape said the voice sounded like the Taliban commander.
"I am neither wounded nor dead, I am fine," said the man.
"Our enemies are being defeated both in the air and on the ground and are therefore using the media for fabricated propaganda," he added.
The leader of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Taliban Movement of Pakistan, is the number one enemy of Pakistan, a country the United States sees as a front-line state in its war against militancy, especially in neighboring Afghanistan.
The United States has stepped up its drone attacks since December 30 when a suicide bomber killed seven CIA employees at a base near the Pakistani border in eastern Afghanistan. The attack by a double agent was the second worst on the CIA in its history.
'Absolutely vicious'
Ten days after the attack, Mehsud appeared sitting beside the bomber in a farewell video, images which created the impression his Taliban movement had become a bigger force to be reckoned with.
The U.S. special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, said earlier on Saturday he did not know if Mehsud had been killed in the Thursday drone strike.
"I've heard every conceivable version of what's happened and I don't know," Holbrooke told reporters during a visit to the Afghan capital Kabul.
"But if he's still alive he's one of the worst people on earth. Absolutely vicious," he said.
The Pakistani government has said his fate has not been confirmed and a Pakistan military spokesman said he had no information about the Taliban chief.
It was not the first time rumors of Mehsud's death have surfaced. The government said in August he had been killed in a Taliban power struggle after his predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a U.S. drone strike.
Were Hakimullah Mehsud to die, analysts say another militant would take his place, just as he replaced Baitullah Mehsud. Baitullah rose to prominence after militant commander Nek Mohammad was killed in a drone strike in 2004.
Drone attacks are a source of friction between the United States and Pakistan. Islamabad says the drones are a violation of its sovereignty, even though they have killed high-profile al Qaeda and Taliban figures fighting the government.
Earlier on Saturday, a suicide bomber attacked a military vehicle in the Pakistani part of the Kashmir region, wounding two soldiers.
The Pakistani part of the disputed Kashmir region had for years been free of Islamist militant violence until several attacks there over the past year.
The violence has fueled concern Pakistani Taliban militants battling the state are trying to expand their campaign from their northwestern heartland to stretch the security forces.
The Pakistani Taliban have stepped up bomb attacks in towns and cities since the military launched an offensive against their South Waziristan bastion in mid-October. Hundreds of people have been killed.
The man on the tape threatened more violence if the drone attacks continued.