Pakistan Taliban gets a new chief

Pakistani Taliban has appointed Khan Said Sajna alias Khalid, who was involved in an attack on a naval base and a jailbreak in which 400 prisoners fled, as its new chief after a US drone attack killed its leader Hakimullah Mehsud Friday, media reports said Saturday.

The consultative body of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Saturday appointed Khan Said the new chief of the outfit at a meeting at an undisclosed place in North Waziristan, Xinhua quoted reports in Pakistani media as saying.

Khan Said, 36, who was the close aide of former chief Hakimullah, got 43 out of 60 votes of the consultative body, the reports said.

Khan Said had been leading the Taliban chapter of South Waziristan since May this year after a US drone strike killed an important leader named Wali-ur-Rehman.

He was reportedly involved in some of the big terrorist attacks in Pakistan, including the attack on a naval base in Karachi and the 2012 jailbreak in which the Taliban freed around 400 inmates in Bannu district.

According to reports, Khan Said has no basic education, conventional or religious, but is considered a battle-hardened and experienced guerrilla battle commander.

Meanwhile, TTP spokesman did not confirm reports that the TTP council has appointed Khan Said as its new chief and insisted that meeting is still in progress somewhere in North Waziristan.

"We will formally make announcement of the new chief in a couple of days," Azam Tariq, spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Tariq told journalists via phone from an undisclosed location.

The militant outfit also confirmed the death of their chief Hakimullah Mehsud in the US drone attack.