The Pakistani Taliban: Falling out

At odds with each other as well as civilisation

IT TOOK 20 days for Pakistan’s Taliban movement even to admit the death of its leader, Baitullah Mehsud, who, through force of personality and ideological conviction had turned his outfit into what American officials repeatedly called an “existential” threat to Pakistan. A power struggle gripped the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) after Mehsud was killed in his native South Waziristan by a missile fired by an American drone on August 5th. Competing factions emerged in what seemed to become a bloody succession battle, even as the group suffered from a wave of arrests, defections and surrenders.

The group, an umbrella for 13 constituent Taliban factions that came together under Mehsud in December 2007, was already under pressure. The Pakistan army, urged on by America, had launched an offensive in late April against the TTP’s Swat chapter. Then in June the army moved on to the TTP’s heartland in South Waziristan. It has since pounded them from the air, with help from American drones.

Three different senior Taliban militants have claimed to be the outfit’s new boss, exposing the disarray the new leadership inherits. Then this week the leadership was formally won by Hakimullah Mehsud. Both he and his main rival, Waliur Rehman, come from Baitullah’s Mehsud tribe of South Waziristan, which dominates the ttp. The picture is muddied by Pakistani intelligence officials, who claim that Hakimullah Mehsud, too, is dead, after a shoot-out with Mr Rehman, and is being impersonated by a relation.