Wali-ur-Rehman Denies Shootout: Alive

WANA: A Pakistani Taliban commander who the government said was involved in a deadly shootout with a rival commander denied on Sunday that there had been any fighting and said both he and the rival were alive.

Wali-ur-Rehman, speaking to a UK-based news agency by telephone from an undisclosed location, also denied that any council meeting, or shura, had taken place to decide on a successor to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’s leader Baitullah Mehsud, reported killed in a U.S. missile attack on Wednesday.

“There are no differences. There was no fighting. We both are alive, and there was no special shura meeting,” Wali-ur-Rehman said.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik had said on Saturday that Wali-ur-Rehman had been involved in a shootout with rival Hakimullah Mehsud, and that there were reports one of them died.

Malik had challenged the Taliban to prove their leaders are still alive, saying physical evidence showed Baitullah had been killed in Wednesday’s drone attack.

Earlier, a rival group had claimed that Baitullah has been killed with 40 militants in drone strike and was buried in his house.

Haji Turkistan Betni, a commander of the rival Abdullah Mehsud group of militants, told the state television that the mastermind of the suicide attacks Qari Hussain was also seriously injured in the drone strike.

He said Mufti Wali-ur-Rehman and Hakimullah, two aspirants to succeed Baitullah Mehsud, were also killed along with their several aides in Taliban Shura meeting in a clash over the leadership.