ISLAMABAD: Hakeemullah Mehsud, the Pakistan Taliban chief that militants say escaped a deadly US drone strike Thursday, is a young, ambitious commander with a string of high-profile attacks to his name.
Local television stations carried unconfirmed reports he may have been killed in the attack on the border of North and South Waziristan but the militia said their leader had already left the area and was alive.
Believed to be aged about 30, the militant was born Jamshed Mehsud in a small mountainous village in South Waziristan near the Afghan border and rose through the Taliban ranks to become a commander in three tribal districts.
The long-haired, bearded insurgent has a flair for the theatrical, putting on shooting displays for reporters and once posing with a US military Humvee vehicle reportedly snatched from a Nato convoy headed to Afghanistan.
But it is the deadly attacks he allegedly masterminded and his penchant for dispatching suicide bombers across the country that have fuelled his reputation for ruthlessness and ambition, analysts say.
Security officials and Taliban sources say he was behind the June 9 suicide attack on the Pearl Continental hotel in the northwest city Peshawar, which left at least nine people dead.
“Hakeemullah Mehsud tried to be assertive by being very ruthless and committed several acts of terrorism across the country but in the process, he could hardly consolidate his position,” defence and security analyst Talat Masood told AFP.
“It will be a huge setback to the Taliban and their entire organisation if reports about Mehsud’s death are true,” he said.
Islamabad has offered a reward of 50 million rupees (about 590,000 dollars) for information leading to the militant’s capture, dead or alive.
Mehsud succeeded Baitullah Mehsud, who ruled the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement from 2007 until he was killed in a US drone attack in August.
Initially studying at an Islamic religious school, Hakeemullah Mehsud left his education early to take up arms with the Taliban.
He was appointed a spokesman for the extremists in 2004, before being promoted in 2008 to the post of commander of Orakzai, Khyber and Kurram districts, part of the semi-autonomous tribal zone bordering Afghanistan.
There he began making a name for himself, staging audacious attacks on Nato supply trucks heading to foreign troops in Afghanistan.
Mehsud was also allegedly involved in the planning of attacks in the eastern city of Lahore last year – the May suicide blast at a police building which left 24 people dead and a raid at a police academy in March which killed eight.
He appeared in a video clip broadcast on local television in October to dispel rumours that he had been killed during infighting over Baitullah’s succession, vowing revenge on the United States for the missile strike that killed his boss.
Later that month, he eluded the Pakistani army when it captured his hometown Kotkai as part of a large-scale offensive against the insurgents.
In his latest video appearance, Mehsud appeared in a clip alongside a Jordanian who blew himself up on a US military base in Afghanistan last month, killing seven CIA agents and his Jordanian handler.
The Jordanian claimed the attack was to avenge the death of Baitullah, and sources close to intelligence services said US efforts to track down Hakeemullah had been stepped up since the CIA bombing.
Analysts say Hakeemullah’s youth and relative inexperience mean he has a weak hold on power, with senior militant Wali-ur Rehman now in charge of South Waziristan, the key stronghold of the Taliban.
“I don’t think he has the calibre of Baitullah Mehsud to command respect everywhere,” said retired general and defence analyst Talat Masood soon after Hakeemullah’s succession last year.
Mehsud was previously known by the nom de guerre Zulfiqar before taking on his current guerrilla name, Hakeemullah, which means one who has knowledge.
He married his second wife last year, but it is not known if he has any children. He is the first cousin of Qari Hussein, the master trainer of suicide bombers for the TTP.
Mohammed Abbasi 