Al Qaeda trying to install new Pak Taliban chief: Malik
August 10th, 2009 - 5:30 pm ICT by ANI
London, Aug 10 (ANI): Al-Qaeda is trying to install a new “chief terrorist” in Pakistan’s tribal region after the killing of Tehreek-e-Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, according to Interior Minister Rehman Malik.
Malik told BBC radio that the Taliban were in disarray and fleeing the area following the apparent killing of their commander in Pakistan, and hoped the border regions would now open up to greater development.
“All the credible intelligence which I have from that is to finally confirm it,” Malik said, when asked if Mehsud was dead following the US drone missile attack on Wednesday in South Waziristan.
“It’s one of the achievements and I also feel that after the killing of Baitullah Mehsud, the whole TTP (the Tehreek-e-Taliban umbrella group)… it will take some time for them to regroup.
“The information which has come since three days, most of these militants are running away from that area,” The News quoted Malik, as saying.
“The other thing which is a bit worrying is that al-Qaeda is getting grouped in the same place and now they are trying to find out somebody to install him as the leader, as the chief terrorist in that area,” he added.
Pakistani analysts say that Mehsud’s purported killing will put renewed pressure on the government to clampdown on militants holed up in the tribal belt and assert more control over the wild, semi-autonomous terrain. (ANI)
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