Baitullah Mehsud, Public Enemy No 1, scourge of the security establishment and commander of what seemed to be an endless supply of suicide bombers, may finally be no more. If he is indeed dead — and many credible sources have independently suggested that he is in fact dead — then a devastating blow has been struck right at the heart of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, the umbrella group of militant networks formed under Mehsud’s command in December 2007. Several factors combined to make Mehsud an extraordinary threat to Pakistan: his de facto kingdom in South Waziristan gave him a phenomenal base in which to organise his militia, estimated to be in the thousands; his charismatic leadership made him a larger-than-life figure in the pantheon of militant leaders in Pakistan; and he rabidly, in many ways unprecedentedly, opposed the Pakistani state, which he accused of collaborating with Americans against the country’s interests. Welcome as Mehsud’s elimination may be, it urgently raises sev...
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