WASHINGTON/DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Pakistani and US officials are increasingly convinced that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Hakeemullah Mehsud has died from injuries sustained in a drone strike, The New York Times reported late on Sunday.
The newspaper said the Pakistan Army said it could not confirm the report.
But government officials in Islamabad and Peshawar said they believed that there was a good chance Mehsud was dead, though they could not offer proof, the report said.
An official from the Obama administration in Washington said intelligence reports over the weekend came close to a definitive conclusion – about 90 percent certain – that Mehsud had died from wounds suffered in a drone strike on January 14 and that he was believed to have been buried in Orakzai Agency, the paper noted.
Meanwhile, the TTP denied reports that their leader had died, saying they would soon try to prove that he is alive. agencies