A Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander on Sunday denied reports of a shootout with a rival, saying the group had not held any meeting to decide on new leadership.
| "Shoot-outs are not meetings, dood." |
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Saturday that Waliur Rehman had been involved in a shootout with a rival for the TTP leadership, Hakeemullah Mehsud, and that one of them had died. "There are no differences. There was no fighting. We both are alive, and there was no special shura meeting (to decide on a successor to Baitullah)," Waliur Rehman said by telephone. Hakeemullah would call journalists soon to prove he too was alive, Wali added.
| Oh, goody! My telephone number is in the phone book. I shall await your call. |
However, an intelligence officer claimed Wali was lying, saying some wounded had been shifted to North Waziristan. |