Five suspected aides of Mehsud killed in Karachi encounter

August 29th, 2009 NEW YORK - Taliban insurgents have resorted to 'organized crime' to generate funds for their militant activities being carried out in the lawless northwestern Pakistan, and the banned outfit has made Karachi their hub for the new 'business'. The Taliban is using Karachi, Pakistan's financial capital, to regroup, smuggle weapons and even work seasonal jobs, but of late the extremists have started working with criminal groups and are using Mafia-style network for kidnapping, robbing banks to generate funds for their counterparts based along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

August 22nd, 2009 PESHAWAR - Four relatives of Pakistan Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud have been detained by the militants on suspicion that they tipped off the authorities about his whereabouts, and this led to his death. A foreign news agency said quoted a senior intelligence official as saying that Mehsud's father-in-law, Ikramuddin Mehsud, his son, one of his brothers and a nephew had been detained by the Taliban on suspicion that they had passed on information about Mehsud's whereabouts.

August 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States has rejected theTaliban's claim of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud being alive. US National Security Adviser General James Jones said there is sufficient evidence and proof that Mehsud has been killed.

August 10th, 2009 KARACHI - Rehamn Dakate, a gangster who orchestrated the Lyari gang war, has been killed in an encounter with the police here. Police said Dakate's body with has been moved to Jinnah Hospital.

August 5th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The wife of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a suspected US drone strike in northwestern Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal agency, TV channels reported Wednesday. TV reports said the drone hit the house of Akramuddin, father-in-law of Mehsud, killing four people and injuring two others.

August 5th, 2009 KARACHI - Pak-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud's wife was killed by a US missile strike in Pakistan's South Waziristan on Wednesday, Pakistani military officials said. Although Mehsud's aides didn't confirm the report, they admitted that a woman was killed in Pakistan's tribal region.

July 7th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - At least 14 suspected Taliban insurgents were killed when a US Predator aircraft fired several missiles on a militant hideout in South Waziristan on Tuesday. According to sources, the US drone fired two missiles at a suspected hide out of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud in Zangra area of Ladha tehsil of the province, killing 14 persons on the spot besides injuring several others.

July 1st, 2009 KARACHI - The Karachi police recently claimed that it had killed five close associates of the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) chief Baitullaah Mehsud in an encounter, but the incident is being seen part of a "fake encounter" trend by security officials to please their higher authorities in search of rewards. Terming the encounter as 'fake', a report in The Nation claimed that security forces have been killing religious activists in the name of extremists.

June 28th, 2009 KARACHI - With the identification of three out of the five alleged aides of the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud, who were killed in an encounter here on Friday night, several questions are being raised over the claims of security officials regarding the late night crackdown on the extremists. The three persons killed in the encounter have been identified as Shah Hussain of Wana, Shahid Khan, and Ahmed Ali both residents of Turbat in Balochistan, while the identity of the other two persons is yet to be disclosed.

June 27th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Five militants loyal to Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud were killed Saturday in a shootout in Karachi, the Pakistani police said. The gunfight broke out in the early hours of the day after the police raided an apartment on a tip-off that the militants were planning attacks in the southern port city, deputy police chief Zafar Bukhari said.

June 27th, 2009 5 militants killed in shootout in south PakistanKARACHI, Pakistan — Police killed five suspected militants Saturday in a nighttime raid on a Karachi apartment housing insurgents loyal to the Pakistani Taliban leader blamed for a wave of suicide attacks, a top official said. City police chief Waseem Ahmed said officers found a large quantity of weapons and explosives in the apartment.

June 25th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Cracks within the Taliban are getting wider, with the younger brother of Qari Zainuddin, Misbahuddin Mehsud, vowing to continue the fight against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud until the Taliban warlord is killed. Misbahuddin Mehsud, who was appointed the new chief of the Abdullah Group, a breakaway Taliban organization, said he would lend all support to the military operation in South Waziristan against the TTP chief to revenge Zainuddin's murder, who was apparently killed for his anti-Mehsud remarks.

June 23rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - A militant leader, who openly challenged Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in north-western Pakistan Tuesday, media reports said. Qari Zainuddin was fatally shot in his house in the town of Dera Ismail Khan, located near the lawless South Waziristan tribal district, the main stronghold of Mehsud.

April 20th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - At least twenty militants were reportedly killed in an offensive launched by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) in the Orakzai region of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Pakistan military officials have claimed. According to the Dawn, PAF jets and helicopter gunships launched an attack targeting a close aide of Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, Hakimullah Mehsud, who had claimed the responsibility for a suicide car-bomb attack on a security convoy in which 25 security personnel were killed near Kohat town of the agency.

April 14th, 2009 KARACHI - Pakistan intelligence agencies have reportedly arrested a close aide of the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud. According to The Daily Times, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) along with other intelligence agencies has arrested one Badshah Deen Mehsud from a hotel here.