KARACHI: Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), confirming the death of Mullah Fazlullah in a US drone strike, said it had elected Noor Wali Mehsud as new chief of the militant group.
Taliban spokesman Mohammed Khurrasani confirmed this in an email to Arab News.
According to the spokesman, after the death or Fazlullah, the shoura collected views of all organizational units of the TTP and appointed Noor Wali Mehsud as the new chief of TTP.
The shoura meeting also nominated Mufti Muzahim, also known as Mufti Hazrat, as deputy of the Pakistani Taliban.
"After their appointments as emir and deputy emir, Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud and Mufti Muzahim received 'bay'a' (loyalty pledges) from the shoura," Khurrasani said.
A US drone strike killed TTP chief Mullah Fazlullah in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province, sources within the group told Arab News earlier this month.
“Fazlullah died along with other commanders,” a TTP source said.
TTP new leader Mufti Noor Wali, right, is the author of ‘Inqilab-e-Mehsud’. The book, left, gives detailed history of TTP from 2001 to 2017.
Fazlullah’s deputy, Noor Wali Mehsud, was most likely to succeed him, Arab News reported when the TTP source confirmed Fazlullah's death.
Mehsud, 40, was made deputy after the killing of Khalid Sajna in a drone strike, and was the TTP’s Karachi chief from June 2013 until May 2015.
Mehsud is the author of the book “Inquilab-e-Mehsud,” in which he claimed that TTP assassinated former Pakistani Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto.
