Baitullah Mehsud

Baitullah Mehsud was born in 1970 in the Landi Dhok village in the Bannu District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, which lies some distance from the Mehsud tribe's base in the South Waziristan Agency, his native village there being Dwatoi in the Ladha Subdivision, his father having moved to Bannu for work.

An ethnic Pashtun, he hailed from the Broomi Khel side of the Shabi Khel sub-clan of the Mehsud tribe, and was one of five brothers.

He avoided media attention and refused to be photographed in adherence with his religious beliefs.

Even if it's generally said that he did not attend schooling or religious madrassa, other sources say he did get early education in Bannu and also got further education in Punjab, while during his student days he was affiliated with the Jamiat Tulaba-e-Islam (JTI), the student wing of Maulana Fazlur Rahman’s religious party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) (JUI-F), and in 1996 went to Afghanistan in order to fight the Northern Alliance with the Taliban and with Jalaluddin Haqqani as mentor.

He emerged as a major tribal leader soon after the 2004 death of Nek Mohammad.

In a ceremony attended by five leading Taliban commanders, including Mullah Dadullah, Baitullah was appointed Mullah Omar's governor of the Mehsud area.

After Nek Muhammad's death, Abdullah Mehsud and Baitullah Mehsud both vied for dominance of the Pakistani Taliban.

When Abdullah died in a raid by Pakistani security forces and later his successor perished in a bomb explosion, Qari Zain and other members of Abdullah's faction suspected that Baitullah played a role in the attacks.

The rivalry continued after Zainuddin obtained leadership of Abdullah's group.

Abdullah Mehsud, a Taliban leader who was among the first captives set free from Guantanamo, has been described as Baitullah's brother.

Other sources have asserted that they were clansmen or merely associates.

Islam Online reports that Baitullah suspected that Abdullah was a double agent.

Mehsud entered into a ceasefire with Pakistani authorities on 8 February 2005.

During the meeting at Sara rogha, the Pakistani military agreed to withdraw its troops from areas under Baitullah's control.

The removal did not include the paramilitary Frontier Corps, consisting mostly of fellow Pashtuns.

In exchange, Baitullah's followers would not attack government officials, impede development projects or allow foreign militants to operate within their territory.

Mehsud was offered US$20 million for his cooperation in the ceasefire.

He declined the money and told Pakistani authorities that they should use the pay-out to "compensate families who had suffered during the military operation".

The ceasefire agreement ended in July 2005 when after accusing the government of reneging on the deal, Baitullah resumed attacks on security forces.

By 2006, Baitullah Mehsud's growing influence in South Waziristan led terrorism analysts to label him as "South Waziristan's Unofficial Amir".

An official in Frontier Constabulary described his army:

"Baitullah's lashkar (army) is very organised. He has divided it into various units and assigned particular tasks to each unit. One of the units been tasked to kill people who are pro-government and pro-US or who support the US occupation of Afghanistan. The last person to be killed was Malik Arsallah Khan, chief of the Khuniakhel Wazir tribe, who was killed on 22 February in Wana (in South Waziristan)."

In June 2006 Taliban-aligned Waziri tribes began negotiating another ceasefire with Pakistani forces.

He formed the TTP from an alliance of about five militant groups in December 2007.

He is thought by U.S. military analysts to have commanded up to 5,000 fighters and to have been behind numerous attacks in Pakistan including the assassination of Benazir Bhutto which he and others have denied.

Disagreement exists over the exact date of the militant's death.

In a January 2007 interview with the BBC Urdu Service, Baitullah extolled the virtues of jihad against foreigners and advocated taking the fight to the U.S. and to Britain.

After the siege of Lal Masjid in July Baitullah turned his forces against the Pakistani state.

In December 2007, Mehsud was declared the first leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.

In February 2008, Mehsud announced that he had agreed to another ceasefire with the government of Pakistan although the Pakistani military claimed that operations against Mehsud's forces continued.

The New York Times, however, reported that anonymous high-level officials in the Pakistani government confirmed the deal.

Baitullah Mehsud (Pashto/; c. 1970 – 5 August 2009) was one of the founders and a leading member of the TTP in Waziristan, Pakistan, and the leader of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Pakistani security officials initially announced that Baitullah Mehsud and his wife were killed on 5 August 2009 in a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency drone attack in the Zangar area of South Waziristan.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik delayed giving official confirmation and asked for patience and an announcement by Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) or other agencies.

Kafayat Ullah, a TTP source, also announced the death of the militant in the strike, as did his deputy Faqir Mohammed.

Later Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan commander Hakimullah Mehsud denied previous TTP announcements and said Mehsud was in good health.

Major General Athar Abbas, ISPR spokesman, and Robert Gibbs of the White House said his death could not be confirmed, U.S. National Security Adviser James L. Jones also claimed that there was "pretty conclusive" evidence that proved Baitullah Mehsud had been killed and that he was 90% sure of it.

On 23 August 2009, Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali-ur-Rehman telephoned the BBC to say that Baitullah Mehsud had died on 23 August 2009 due to injuries sustained during the 5 August attack.

On 30 September 2009, the BBC received a video that showed the body of Mehsud.

Syed Saleem Shahzad, writing in the Asia Times, described Baitullah Mehsud as a physically small man, with diabetes.