NEFA Foundation: Focus on New Pakistani Taliban Leader Hakimullah Mehsud

By Evan Kohlmann

Following Hakimullah Mehsud’s meeting with tribal reporters last week, the NEFA Foundation gained access to a brief autobiographical sketch handwritten by the TTP leader to provide a reliable account of his life and origins to the media. The most significant section of Mehsud’s brief autobiographical sketch outlines the early days of the Pakistani Taliban, which, according to Hakimullah, first emerged alongside their Afghan brethren in Khost Province, namely the Haqqani network under the leadership of commander Maulvi Sangeen. Significantly, Amir Baitullah, who Hakimullah succeeded at the helm of the TTP, is mentioned as one of the early leaders, alongside Nek Mohammed Wazir, the first figurehead of the Pakistani Taliban, and Abdullah Mehsud, his successor for a brief period. Also, Hakimullah takes care to mention both Al-Qaida and the Uzbek insurgents, with whom he has reportedly been associated since his early days. He also seems to point out that he directly succeeded Nek Mohammed as the paladin of Uzbek and Al-Qaida fighters, even under Baitullah’s rule.

NEFA has packaged the biography along with an accompanying report by Senior Investigator Claudio Franco and video footage of a recent meeting between Hakimullah Mehsud and the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), Tahir Yuldashev.