Baitullah Mehsud
Encyclopedia
Baitullah Mehsud was a leading militant in Waziristan
, Pakistan
, and the leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
(TTP). He formed the TTP from an alliance of about five militant groups in December 2007. He is thought by U.S. military analysts to have commanded up to 5,000 fighters and to have been behind numerous attacks in Pakistan including the assassination of Benazir Bhutto
which he and others have denied.
Disagreement exists over the exact date of the militant's death. Pakistani security officials initially announced that Baitullah Mehsud, his wife and bodyguards were killed on 5 August 2009 in a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
drone attack
in the Zangar area of South Waziristan. Interior Minister Rehman Malik
delayed giving official confirmation and asked for patience and an announcement by Inter Services Public Relations
(ISPR) or other agencies. Kafayat Ullah, a TTP source, also announced the death of the militant in the strike, as did his deputy Faqir Mohammed
. Later Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan commander Hakimullah Mehsud
denied previous TTP announcements and said Mehsud was in good health. Major General Athar Abbas
, ISPR spokesman, and Robert Gibbs
of the White House
said his death could not be confirmed, U.S. National Security Adviser
James L. Jones
also claimed that there was "pretty conclusive" evidence that proved Baitullah Mehsud had been killed and that he was 90% sure of it. On August 25, 2009, Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali-ur-Rehman
telephoned the BBC to say that the Baitullah Mehsud had died on August 23, 2009, due to injuries sustained during the August 5 attack. The BBC received a video that shows the body of Mehsud on September 30.
Syed Saleem Shahzad
, writing in the Asia Times
, described Baitullah Mehsud as a physically small man, with diabetes.
of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan
, which lies some distance from the Mehsud
tribe's base in the South Waziristan
Agency. An ethnic Pashtun
, he hailed from the Broomi Khel side of the Shabi Khel sub-clan of the Mehsud tribe, and was one of five brothers.
He avoided media attention and refused to be photographed in adherence with his religious beliefs. He never finished formal schooling although he has received some instruction in a madrassa.
As a young madrassa student, Baitullah would often travel into Afghanistan to assist the Taliban in its implementation of Sharia
.
He emerged as a major tribal leader soon after the 2004 death of Nek Mohammad. In a ceremony attended by five leading Taliban commanders, including Mullah Dadullah
, Baitullah was appointed Mullah Omar
's governor of the Mehsud area
.
and other members of Abdullah's faction suspected that Baitullah played a role in the attacks. The rivalry continued after Zainuddin obtained leadership of Abdullah's group.
, a Taliban leader who was among the first captives set free from Guantanamo, has been described as Baitullah's brother.
Other sources have asserted that they were clansmen or merely associates.
Islam Online reports that Baitullah suspected that Abdullah was a double agent.
During the meeting at Sara rogha, the Pakistani military agreed to withdraw its troops from areas under Baitullah's control. The removal did not include the paramilitary Frontier Corps
, consisting mostly of fellow Pashtuns. In exchange, Baitullah's followers would not attack government officials, impede development projects or allow foreign militants to operate within their territory. Mehsud was offered US$20 million for his cooperation in the ceasefire. He declined the money and told Pakistani authorities that they should use the pay-out to "compensate families who had suffered during the military operation". The ceasefire agreement ended in July 2005 when after accusing the government of reneging on the deal, Baitullah resumed attacks on security forces.
An official in Frontier Constabulary described his army:
In June 2006 Taliban-aligned Waziri tribes began negotiating another ceasefire with Pakistani forces.
In a January 2007 interview with the BBC Urdu Service, Baitullah extolled the virtues of jihad against foreigners and advocated taking the fight to the U.S. and to Britain.
After the siege of Lal Masjid
in July Baitullah turned his forces against the Pakistani state.
In December 2007, Mehsud was declared the first leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
.
, however, reported that anonymous high-level officials in the Pakistani government confirmed the deal. In April Baitullah circulated a pamphlet that ordered his followers not to undertake any attacks inside Pakistan due to ongoing peace talks.
In July 2008, Baitullah issued a statement that threatened to take action against the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government if it did not step down within five days. The NWFP parliamentary leaders promptly refused.
Mehsud's first wife bore his four daughters and he may have hoped his second wife, "the daughter of an influential cleric," Ikramuddin Mehsud, would bear him a son.
and Maulvi Nazir
put aside their differences in an effort to refocus against a common enemy. Nazir had previously feuded with Baitullah for his sheltering of Uzbek militants
whom Nazir had fought to evict from South Waziristan. As a result of the February agreement, Maulvi Nazir ended support for Qari Zainuddin Mehsud, who the Daily Times described as the "self-appointed successor of ... Abdullah Mehsud." Zainuddin's group then allied with a group led by another militant, Turkestan Bhittani
.
On 27 March 2009, Pakistan's Daily Times reported that Baitullah Mehsud's group was engaged in a dispute with Qari Zainuddin's group for control of South Waziristan. Both groups had distributed pamphlets leveling accusations against the other groups' leader. Qari Zainuddin stated that Baitullah's group was not practicing jihad because Islam forbids suicide attacks. Baitullah's pamphlet claimed that the slain Abdullah had been a government puppet and Qari Zainuddin was a traitor to Islam and to the Mehsud tribe.
The rivalry culminated on 23 June 2009, when a gunman shot and killed Zainuddin in Dera Ismail Khan. The gunman had served as one of his bodyguards and after the incident was suspected to be Baitullah's agent.
50,000,000 for information that leads to the capture, dead or alive, of Baitullah. The bounty coincided with a previous offer from the United States, which offered $5,000,000.
, it may have been his desire to father a son that ultimately led to his demise.
Two of his followers, Maulana Meraj and Hakimullah Mehsud
, denied the report the following day, dismissing it as "rumors" intended to negatively impact the Taliban's spread of jihad. They suggested that Baitullah had gone into hiding and isolation as a part of a strategy. Hakimullah added that meetings of Taliban officials in Dir and surroundings are proceeding as usual "to make worth of their abilities and to discuss other plans which he called 'war game plans'." These reports were followed by several telephone conversations between AP
reporters with Qari Hussain
, Maulvi Omar
and Hakimullah Mehsud to deny Baitullah's death and to claim he had been ill, perhaps gravely, for several months or had been "busy on the battlefield." Hakimullah indicated that soon a videotape would be released as a proof of his statements.
After his capture on August 18, Maulvi Omar retracted his previous statements and confirmed that Baitullah had indeed perished in the missile strike. On August 20, U.S. President Barack Obama
stated "We took out [Baitullah] Mehsud" in a radio address. On August 25, both Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali-ur-Rehman confirmed to BBC and AP correspondents that Baitullah had indeed perished on 23 August from injuries sustained in the missile strike.
The attack is part of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
's (CIA) campaign using unmanned aerial vehicles
in the region by the agency's Special Activities Division
. U.S. missile strikes targeting Mehsud territory in South Waziristan became more common after June 2009 when Pakistan, while having been publicly critical of the missile strikes, declared a military offensive against Mehsud.
attributed almost 80% of suicide bombings in Pakistan to Baitullah. Pakistani officials traced an estimated 90% of suicide and militant attacks within Pakistan throughout the 2007–2009 period to his South Waziristan stronghold.
note that Mehsud is the primary suspect behind the attacks.
A 18 December 2005 report stated that Baitullah Mehsud, Abdullah Mehsud
and Yaldeshev were the subject of a man-hunt.
Authorities said they believed that the militants were short of ammunition and would be captured soon.
on 27 December 2007.
The Pakistani government released a transcript it asserted was from a conversation between Baitullah Mehsud and Maulvi Sahib (literally "Mr. Cleric").
According to the transcript Maulvi Sahib claimed credit for the attack, Baitullah Mehsud asked who carried it out, and was told, "There were Saeed, the second was Badarwala Bilal and Ikramullah
was also there."
The translation released from Agence France Presse differed slightly from the translation from the Associated Press
.
According to the transcripts Baitullah Mehsud says he is at, "Anwar Shah's house", in Makeen or Makin. The Agence France Presse transcript identifies Makeen as a town in South Waziristan
.
Subsequently, both Agence France Presse and NDTV
released an official denial by Mehsud's spokesman in which he said that Mehsud had no involvement in the attack, that the transcript was "a drama", that it would have been "impossible" for militants to penetrate the security cordon around Bhutto, and that her death was a "tragedy" which had left Mehsud "shocked". Mehsud's spokesman was quoted as saying: "I strongly deny it. Tribal people have their own customs. We don't strike women."
In an address to the nation on 2 January 2008, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf
said that he believed Maulana Fazlullah
and Baitullah Mehsud were prime suspects in the assassination of Bhutto.
On 18 January 2008, The Washington Post
reported that the CIA has concluded that Mehsud was behind the Bhutto assassination. "Offering the most definitive public assessment by a U.S. intelligence official, Michael V. Hayden said Bhutto was killed by fighters allied with Mehsud, a tribal leader in northwestern Pakistan, with support from al-Qaeda's terrorist network." U.S. President George W. Bush
then placed Mr. Mehsud on "a classified list of militant leaders whom the C.I.A. and American commandos were authorized to capture or kill."
in Lahore
. He told the BBC
that the attack was in retaliation for continued missile strikes
from American drones
for which the Pakistani government shared responsibility. In the same interview Mehsud claimed two other attacks: a March 25 attack on an Islamabad
police station and a 30 March suicide attack on a military convoy near Bannu
.
, New York, on Friday 13 April. 13 people were killed in the shooting, after which the attacker committed suicide. In a telephone interview, Mehsud reportedly said: "I accept responsibility. They were my men. I gave them orders in reaction to US drone attacks." Mehsud made this claim despite the fact that the gunman in the shootings was alone and of Vietnam
ese nationality and had stated other motives in his last letter.
Waziristan
Waziristan is a mountainous region near the Northwest of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11,585 km² . The area is entirely populated by ethnic Pashtuns . The language spoken in the valley is Pashto/Pakhto...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, and the leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan , alternatively referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, is an umbrella organization of various Islamist militant groups based in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border in Pakistan. Most, but not all, Pakistani Taliban groups coalesce under the TTP...
(TTP). He formed the TTP from an alliance of about five militant groups in December 2007. He is thought by U.S. military analysts to have commanded up to 5,000 fighters and to have been behind numerous attacks in Pakistan including the assassination of Benazir Bhutto
Assassination of Benazir Bhutto
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto occurred on 27 December 2007 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Bhutto, twice Prime Minister of Pakistan and then-leader of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, had been campaigning ahead of elections due in January 2008...
which he and others have denied.
Disagreement exists over the exact date of the militant's death. Pakistani security officials initially announced that Baitullah Mehsud, his wife and bodyguards were killed on 5 August 2009 in a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
drone attack
Drone attacks in Pakistan
The United States government, led by the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division, has made a series of attacks on targets in northwest Pakistan since 2004 using drones . These attacks are part of the US' War on Terrorism campaign, seeking to defeat Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants...
in the Zangar area of South Waziristan. Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Rehman Malik
27 April 2009 He has been the interior adviser since 27 March 2008.Senator A. Rehman Malik is a Pakistani politician, member of the Senate of Pakistan, and the current Interior Minister of Pakistan under the Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani administration. His Second name is Shetan Malik and he...
delayed giving official confirmation and asked for patience and an announcement by Inter Services Public Relations
Inter Services Public Relations
Inter Services Public Relations is an administrative military organization within the Pakistan Defence Forces that coordinates military information with the media and the civil society...
(ISPR) or other agencies. Kafayat Ullah, a TTP source, also announced the death of the militant in the strike, as did his deputy Faqir Mohammed
Faqir Mohammed
Faqir Mohammed is a member of the Mohmand tribe and a deputy leader of the Pakistani Taliban umbrella group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. He was born in Chopatra, in Bajaur Agency, Pakistan. He was reported as killed on March 5, 2010 during a helicopter gunship attack on militants by the Pakistani...
. Later Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan commander Hakimullah Mehsud
Hakimullah Mehsud
Hakimullah Mehsud , born c. 1979 as Jamshed Mehsud and also known as Zulfiqar Mehsud , is the amir of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan...
denied previous TTP announcements and said Mehsud was in good health. Major General Athar Abbas
Athar Abbas
Major General Athar Abbas is a two-star general and the current military spokesperson for the Pakistan Defence Forces who replaced Major General Waheed Arshad as the new Director General of Inter Services Public Relations on January 14, 2008....
, ISPR spokesman, and Robert Gibbs
Robert Gibbs
Robert Lane Gibbs was the 28th White House Press Secretary. Gibbs was the communications director for then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama and Obama's 2008 presidential campaign...
of the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
said his death could not be confirmed, U.S. National Security Adviser
National Security Advisor (United States)
The Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor , serves as the chief advisor to the President of the United States on national security issues...
James L. Jones
James L. Jones
James Logan Jones, Jr. is the former United States National Security Advisor and a retired United States Marine Corps General....
also claimed that there was "pretty conclusive" evidence that proved Baitullah Mehsud had been killed and that he was 90% sure of it. On August 25, 2009, Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali-ur-Rehman
Wali-ur-Rehman
Wali-ur-Rehman is a citizen of Pakistan, and a senior Taliban commander based in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas...
telephoned the BBC to say that the Baitullah Mehsud had died on August 23, 2009, due to injuries sustained during the August 5 attack. The BBC received a video that shows the body of Mehsud on September 30.
Syed Saleem Shahzad
Syed Saleem Shahzad
Syed Saleem Shahzad was a Pakistani investigative journalist who wrote widely for leading European and Asian media. He served as the Pakistan Bureau Chief of Asia Times Online and Italian news agency Adnkronos . He was found dead in a canal in North-east Pakistan, showing signs of torture, two...
, writing in the Asia Times
Asia Times
Asia Times was a newspaper launched in Thailand by Thai tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul in 1995. The newspaper hired talent from around the world to produce a regional English-language newspaper....
, described Baitullah Mehsud as a physically small man, with diabetes.
Early life
Baitullah Mehsud was born in the early 1970s in Landi Dhok village in the Bannu DistrictBannu District
Bannu District is one of the twenty four districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, it is represented in the provincial assembly by four MPAs. The chief city of the district is Bannu. The major industries are cloth weaving and the manufacture of cotton fabrics, machinery, and...
of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, which lies some distance from the Mehsud
Mahsud
Mahsud is a Pashtun tribe in South Waziristan, a tribal region in Pakistan. Mahsud are considered to be one of the bravest and toughest Pashtun Tribes. The Mahsud tribe lives in the centre of South Waziristan valley, surrounded on three sides by the Darwesh Waziris, and being shut off by the...
tribe's base in the South Waziristan
South Waziristan
South Waziristan is the southern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11,585 km² . Waziristan comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming...
Agency. An ethnic Pashtun
Pashtun people
Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...
, he hailed from the Broomi Khel side of the Shabi Khel sub-clan of the Mehsud tribe, and was one of five brothers.
He avoided media attention and refused to be photographed in adherence with his religious beliefs. He never finished formal schooling although he has received some instruction in a madrassa.
As a young madrassa student, Baitullah would often travel into Afghanistan to assist the Taliban in its implementation of Sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
.
He emerged as a major tribal leader soon after the 2004 death of Nek Mohammad. In a ceremony attended by five leading Taliban commanders, including Mullah Dadullah
Mullah Dadullah
Maulavi or Mullah Dadullah or Dadullah Akhund was the Taliban's senior military commander until his death by U.S and U.K special ops in 2007. He was an ethnic Pashtun from the Kakar tribe of Kalai-Kakaran village in Uruzgan province of Afghanistan...
, Baitullah was appointed Mullah Omar
Mohammed Omar
Mullah Mohammed Omar , often simply called Mullah Omar, is the leader of the Taliban movement that operates in Afghanistan. He was Afghanistan's de facto head of state from 1996 to late 2001, under the official title "Head of the Supreme Council"...
's governor of the Mehsud area
South Waziristan
South Waziristan is the southern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11,585 km² . Waziristan comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming...
.
Leadership dispute
After Nek Muhammad's death, Abdullah Mehsud and Baitullah Mehsud both vied for dominance of the Pakistani Taliban. When Abdullah died in a raid by Pakistani security forces and later his successor perished in a bomb explosion, Qari ZainQari Zain
Qari Zainuddin Mehsud , commonly known as Qari Zain, was a citizen of Pakistan, a member of the Mehsud tribe, and a leader of a Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan faction in South Waziristan, one of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas...
and other members of Abdullah's faction suspected that Baitullah played a role in the attacks. The rivalry continued after Zainuddin obtained leadership of Abdullah's group.
Relationship with Abdullah Mehsud
Abdullah MehsudAbdullah Mehsud
Abdullah Mehsud was a member of the Mahsud tribe in South Waziristan, and a Pashtun militant commander who killed himself with a hand grenade after security forces raided his dwelling in Zhob, Balochistan, Pakistan....
, a Taliban leader who was among the first captives set free from Guantanamo, has been described as Baitullah's brother.
Other sources have asserted that they were clansmen or merely associates.
Islam Online reports that Baitullah suspected that Abdullah was a double agent.
2005 ceasefire agreement
Mehsud entered into a ceasefire with Pakistani authorities on 8 February 2005.During the meeting at Sara rogha, the Pakistani military agreed to withdraw its troops from areas under Baitullah's control. The removal did not include the paramilitary Frontier Corps
Frontier Corps
The Frontier Corps is a federally-controlled paramilitary force of Pakistan, recruited mostly from the tribal areas along the western borders and led by officers from the Pakistan Army...
, consisting mostly of fellow Pashtuns. In exchange, Baitullah's followers would not attack government officials, impede development projects or allow foreign militants to operate within their territory. Mehsud was offered US$20 million for his cooperation in the ceasefire. He declined the money and told Pakistani authorities that they should use the pay-out to "compensate families who had suffered during the military operation". The ceasefire agreement ended in July 2005 when after accusing the government of reneging on the deal, Baitullah resumed attacks on security forces.
2006–2007
By 2006, Baitullah Mehsud's growing influence in South Waziristan led terrorism analysts to label him as "South Waziristan's Unofficial Amir".An official in Frontier Constabulary described his army:
In June 2006 Taliban-aligned Waziri tribes began negotiating another ceasefire with Pakistani forces.
In a January 2007 interview with the BBC Urdu Service, Baitullah extolled the virtues of jihad against foreigners and advocated taking the fight to the U.S. and to Britain.
After the siege of Lal Masjid
Siege of Lal Masjid
The siege of Lal Masjid was a confrontation in July 2007 between Islamic fundamentalist militants and the Government of Pakistan led by General Pervez Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz Administration, then Prime minister of Pakistan...
in July Baitullah turned his forces against the Pakistani state.
In December 2007, Mehsud was declared the first leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan , alternatively referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, is an umbrella organization of various Islamist militant groups based in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border in Pakistan. Most, but not all, Pakistani Taliban groups coalesce under the TTP...
.
2008 ceasefire
In February 2008, Mehsud announced that he had agreed to another ceasefire with the government of Pakistan although the Pakistani military claimed that operations against Mehsud's forces continued. The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, however, reported that anonymous high-level officials in the Pakistani government confirmed the deal. In April Baitullah circulated a pamphlet that ordered his followers not to undertake any attacks inside Pakistan due to ongoing peace talks.
In July 2008, Baitullah issued a statement that threatened to take action against the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government if it did not step down within five days. The NWFP parliamentary leaders promptly refused.
Rumors of death in September 2008
Various news media sources reported the death of Baitullah Mehsud on 30 September 2008 at the age of 34 due to kidney failure. Many of his close associates, including his aide, his doctor and a Taliban spokesman, vehemently denied the rumors. According to the spokesman, Mehsud was "fit and well." Mehsud's doctor also said he had spoken with him after the rumors of his death. The rumors proved to be false.Second marriage
Mehsud entered a second marriage in November 2008.Mehsud's first wife bore his four daughters and he may have hoped his second wife, "the daughter of an influential cleric," Ikramuddin Mehsud, would bear him a son.
Leadership dispute continues
In February 2009, senior Taliban leaders Baitullah Mehsud, Hafiz Gul BahadurHafiz Gul Bahadur
Hafiz Gul Bahadur is the leader of a Pakistani Taliban faction based in North Waziristan. Upon the formation of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan in December 2007, he was announced as the militant group's overall naib amir under Baitullah Mehsud, who was based in South Waziristan, but has largely...
and Maulvi Nazir
Maulvi Nazir
Maulvi Nazir is a leading militant of the Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan.Nazir's operations are based around Wana.He is opposed to foreign influence, particularly Uzbek and American, in Waziristan...
put aside their differences in an effort to refocus against a common enemy. Nazir had previously feuded with Baitullah for his sheltering of Uzbek militants
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan is a militant Islamist group formed in 1991 by the Islamic ideologue Tahir Yuldashev, and former Soviet paratrooper Juma Namangani—both ethnic Uzbeks from the Fergana Valley...
whom Nazir had fought to evict from South Waziristan. As a result of the February agreement, Maulvi Nazir ended support for Qari Zainuddin Mehsud, who the Daily Times described as the "self-appointed successor of ... Abdullah Mehsud." Zainuddin's group then allied with a group led by another militant, Turkestan Bhittani
Turkestan Bhittani
Turkestan Bhittani is the militant leader of a pro-government Taliban faction based in the town of Tank in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. He is notable for his opposition to Baitullah Mehsud's Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan...
.
On 27 March 2009, Pakistan's Daily Times reported that Baitullah Mehsud's group was engaged in a dispute with Qari Zainuddin's group for control of South Waziristan. Both groups had distributed pamphlets leveling accusations against the other groups' leader. Qari Zainuddin stated that Baitullah's group was not practicing jihad because Islam forbids suicide attacks. Baitullah's pamphlet claimed that the slain Abdullah had been a government puppet and Qari Zainuddin was a traitor to Islam and to the Mehsud tribe.
The rivalry culminated on 23 June 2009, when a gunman shot and killed Zainuddin in Dera Ismail Khan. The gunman had served as one of his bodyguards and after the incident was suspected to be Baitullah's agent.
Bounties
On 28 June 2009 the Pakistani government announced a reward of Rs.Pakistani rupee
The rupee is the currency of Pakistan. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the State Bank of Pakistan, the central bank of the country. The most commonly used symbol for the rupee is Rs, used on receipts when purchasing goods and services. In Pakistan, the rupee is referred to as the...
50,000,000 for information that leads to the capture, dead or alive, of Baitullah. The bounty coincided with a previous offer from the United States, which offered $5,000,000.
Death in August 2009
On the night of August 5, 2009, while he was staying with his second wife at his father-in-law's house, a U.S. drone attacked the premises. According to The TimesThe Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, it may have been his desire to father a son that ultimately led to his demise.
Two of his followers, Maulana Meraj and Hakimullah Mehsud
Hakimullah Mehsud
Hakimullah Mehsud , born c. 1979 as Jamshed Mehsud and also known as Zulfiqar Mehsud , is the amir of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan...
, denied the report the following day, dismissing it as "rumors" intended to negatively impact the Taliban's spread of jihad. They suggested that Baitullah had gone into hiding and isolation as a part of a strategy. Hakimullah added that meetings of Taliban officials in Dir and surroundings are proceeding as usual "to make worth of their abilities and to discuss other plans which he called 'war game plans'." These reports were followed by several telephone conversations between AP
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
reporters with Qari Hussain
Qari Hussain
Qari Hussain Ahmad Mehsud was a top lieutenant in the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and the organizer of the group's suicide bombing squads. He was a cousin of Hakimullah Mehsud.- Operations :...
, Maulvi Omar
Maulvi Omar
Maulvi Said Muhammad, better known as Maulvi Omar or Maulvi Umar, is a senior Taliban commander who was captured by the Pakistani security forces in August 2009. Omar, a spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan , was a close associate of Baitullah Mehsud...
and Hakimullah Mehsud to deny Baitullah's death and to claim he had been ill, perhaps gravely, for several months or had been "busy on the battlefield." Hakimullah indicated that soon a videotape would be released as a proof of his statements.
After his capture on August 18, Maulvi Omar retracted his previous statements and confirmed that Baitullah had indeed perished in the missile strike. On August 20, U.S. President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
stated "We took out [Baitullah] Mehsud" in a radio address. On August 25, both Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali-ur-Rehman confirmed to BBC and AP correspondents that Baitullah had indeed perished on 23 August from injuries sustained in the missile strike.
The attack is part of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
's (CIA) campaign using unmanned aerial vehicles
Drone attacks in Pakistan
The United States government, led by the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division, has made a series of attacks on targets in northwest Pakistan since 2004 using drones . These attacks are part of the US' War on Terrorism campaign, seeking to defeat Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants...
in the region by the agency's Special Activities Division
Special Activities Division
The Special Activities Division is a division in the United States Central Intelligence Agency's National Clandestine Service responsible for covert operations known as "special activities"...
. U.S. missile strikes targeting Mehsud territory in South Waziristan became more common after June 2009 when Pakistan, while having been publicly critical of the missile strikes, declared a military offensive against Mehsud.
Notable incidents attributed to Baitullah Mehsud
A September 2007 report from the United NationsUnited Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
attributed almost 80% of suicide bombings in Pakistan to Baitullah. Pakistani officials traced an estimated 90% of suicide and militant attacks within Pakistan throughout the 2007–2009 period to his South Waziristan stronghold.
September 2007 Rawalpindi bombings
Preliminary investigations concerning the September 2007 bombings in RawalpindiSeptember 2007 bombings in Rawalpindi
The 4 September 2007 Rawalpindi bombings refer to the incident on September 4, 2007 in which suicide bombers attacked a bus carrying Government workers exploded in a commercial district of Rawalpindi. It is estimated to have killed 25 people and injured 68. Police have increased security within...
note that Mehsud is the primary suspect behind the attacks.
A 18 December 2005 report stated that Baitullah Mehsud, Abdullah Mehsud
Abdullah Mehsud
Abdullah Mehsud was a member of the Mahsud tribe in South Waziristan, and a Pashtun militant commander who killed himself with a hand grenade after security forces raided his dwelling in Zhob, Balochistan, Pakistan....
and Yaldeshev were the subject of a man-hunt.
Authorities said they believed that the militants were short of ammunition and would be captured soon.
Benazir Bhutto assassination
On 28 December 2007 the Pakistan government claimed that it had strong evidence regarding Baitullah Mehsud as the man behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir BhuttoAssassination of Benazir Bhutto
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto occurred on 27 December 2007 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Bhutto, twice Prime Minister of Pakistan and then-leader of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, had been campaigning ahead of elections due in January 2008...
on 27 December 2007.
The Pakistani government released a transcript it asserted was from a conversation between Baitullah Mehsud and Maulvi Sahib (literally "Mr. Cleric").
According to the transcript Maulvi Sahib claimed credit for the attack, Baitullah Mehsud asked who carried it out, and was told, "There were Saeed, the second was Badarwala Bilal and Ikramullah
Mohammed Ikramullah
Mohammad Ikramullah KCMG was a prominent figure in the administration of Pakistan at the time of independence. As a member of the provisional government of Pakistan, before the independence, he was Secretary and Advisor at the Ministries of Commerce, Information and Broadcasting, Commonwealth...
was also there."
The translation released from Agence France Presse differed slightly from the translation from the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
.
According to the transcripts Baitullah Mehsud says he is at, "Anwar Shah's house", in Makeen or Makin. The Agence France Presse transcript identifies Makeen as a town in South Waziristan
South Waziristan
South Waziristan is the southern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11,585 km² . Waziristan comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming...
.
Subsequently, both Agence France Presse and NDTV
NDTV
NDTV is an Indian commercial broadcasting television network founded in 1988. It was founded by Prannoy Roy, an eminent journalist and current chairman and director of NDTV Group. NDTV currently has more than 1,000 employees producing news from over twenty locations in India...
released an official denial by Mehsud's spokesman in which he said that Mehsud had no involvement in the attack, that the transcript was "a drama", that it would have been "impossible" for militants to penetrate the security cordon around Bhutto, and that her death was a "tragedy" which had left Mehsud "shocked". Mehsud's spokesman was quoted as saying: "I strongly deny it. Tribal people have their own customs. We don't strike women."
In an address to the nation on 2 January 2008, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...
said that he believed Maulana Fazlullah
Maulana Fazlullah
Maulana Fazlullah, nicknamed the "Radio Mullah" or "Mullah Radio", is the leader of Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi , a banned Pakistani Islamic fundamentalist militant group allied to the Pakistani Taliban, that aims to enforce Sharia in the country...
and Baitullah Mehsud were prime suspects in the assassination of Bhutto.
On 18 January 2008, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
reported that the CIA has concluded that Mehsud was behind the Bhutto assassination. "Offering the most definitive public assessment by a U.S. intelligence official, Michael V. Hayden said Bhutto was killed by fighters allied with Mehsud, a tribal leader in northwestern Pakistan, with support from al-Qaeda's terrorist network." U.S. President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
then placed Mr. Mehsud on "a classified list of militant leaders whom the C.I.A. and American commandos were authorized to capture or kill."
March 2009 Lahore police academy attack
In telephone interviews with news media Mehsud claimed responsibility for the 30 March 2009 attack on the police training academy2009 Lahore police academy attacks
At 7.30 am on 30 March 2009, the Manawan Police Academy in Lahore, Pakistan was attacked by an estimated 12 gunmen. The perpetrators were armed with automatic weapons and grenades or rockets and some were dressed as policemen. They took over the main building during a morning parade when 750...
in Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
. He told the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
that the attack was in retaliation for continued missile strikes
Drone attacks on Pakistan by the United States of America
The United States government, led by the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division, has made a series of attacks on targets in northwest Pakistan since 2004 using drones . These attacks are part of the US' War on Terrorism campaign, seeking to defeat Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants...
from American drones
Unmanned aerial vehicle
An unmanned aerial vehicle , also known as a unmanned aircraft system , remotely piloted aircraft or unmanned aircraft, is a machine which functions either by the remote control of a navigator or pilot or autonomously, that is, as a self-directing entity...
for which the Pakistani government shared responsibility. In the same interview Mehsud claimed two other attacks: a March 25 attack on an Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
police station and a 30 March suicide attack on a military convoy near Bannu
Bannu
Bannu is the principal city of the Bannu District in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. It is an important road junction and market city. Bannu is a very old city, founded in ancient times; however, the present location of the downtown Bannu was founded by Sir Herbert Edwardes in 1848,...
.
April 2009 Binghamton shootings claim
Although the FBI later completely refuted that he had any involvement in the incident, Mehsud claimed responsibility for the shootings in BinghamtonBinghamton shootings
The Binghamton shootings took place on Friday, April 3, 2009, at the American Civic Association immigration center in Binghamton, New York, United States. At approximately 10:30 a.m. EDT, a naturalized immigrant Jiverly Antares Wong entered the facility and shot numerous people inside...
, New York, on Friday 13 April. 13 people were killed in the shooting, after which the attacker committed suicide. In a telephone interview, Mehsud reportedly said: "I accept responsibility. They were my men. I gave them orders in reaction to US drone attacks." Mehsud made this claim despite the fact that the gunman in the shootings was alone and of Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
ese nationality and had stated other motives in his last letter.
See also
- Faqir MohammedFaqir MohammedFaqir Mohammed is a member of the Mohmand tribe and a deputy leader of the Pakistani Taliban umbrella group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. He was born in Chopatra, in Bajaur Agency, Pakistan. He was reported as killed on March 5, 2010 during a helicopter gunship attack on militants by the Pakistani...
- MahsudMahsudMahsud is a Pashtun tribe in South Waziristan, a tribal region in Pakistan. Mahsud are considered to be one of the bravest and toughest Pashtun Tribes. The Mahsud tribe lives in the centre of South Waziristan valley, surrounded on three sides by the Darwesh Waziris, and being shut off by the...
- Tehrik-i-Taliban PakistanTehrik-i-Taliban PakistanTehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan , alternatively referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, is an umbrella organization of various Islamist militant groups based in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border in Pakistan. Most, but not all, Pakistani Taliban groups coalesce under the TTP...
- Hakimullah MehsudHakimullah MehsudHakimullah Mehsud , born c. 1979 as Jamshed Mehsud and also known as Zulfiqar Mehsud , is the amir of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan...
- Special Activities DivisionSpecial Activities DivisionThe Special Activities Division is a division in the United States Central Intelligence Agency's National Clandestine Service responsible for covert operations known as "special activities"...
- Drone attacks in PakistanDrone attacks in PakistanThe United States government, led by the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division, has made a series of attacks on targets in northwest Pakistan since 2004 using drones . These attacks are part of the US' War on Terrorism campaign, seeking to defeat Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants...
External links
- Pakistan Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud killed
- Eye of the Predator by Abhisar Sharma
- BBC Profile – Baitullah Mehsud BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
28 December 2007 - Who is Baitullah Mehsud? Part 1 and Part 2 (c) 2007
- Pakistan's Most Wanted IslamOnline.net, 29 January 2008
- "The Drone War," by Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedeman in The New Republic
- "The Predator War," by Jane Mayer, The New Yorker