Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has confirmed the death of TTP Chief Hakimullah Mehsud Tuesday. The Taliban leader was severely injured in a Drone attack in Shaktoi on the night between 13th and 14th January, 2010. Other reports stated he received wounds to the leg and abdomen.
Though Mehsud was reported to be injured in the drone attacks, an audio tape released on January 16 revealed that Mehsud was alive.
From another report: Taliban militants issued an audio tape on January 16 purportedly from Hakimullah, denying he was killed in a U.S. missile strike two days earlier. "I am neither wounded nor dead, I am fine," said a man on the tape which a Taliban spokesman played over the telephone to a Reuters reporter.
So, hurt but still had his strength and defiance. Audio only so as to hide the extent of his injuries. Anxious to get better and return to fighting the infidels.
A doctor was kidnapped from Hango for treating the TTP chief. Later, he was shifted from Shaktoi to Mamonzai.
So, the highest treatment the Taliban could get (for their leader, remember) was the best doctor in...Hango. Yeah, I want a doctor from the civil hospital from a small city of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province treating me for life-threatening injuries. With no nurse and minimal supplies, presumably.
According to Taliban, Mehsud died on February 9, 2010 while he was being transferred to Karachi. The banned outfit stated that their leader succumbed to his injuries near Multan. His body was then taken back to tribal areas.
So, it took 27 days from the injury received by the U.S. missile strike until death. Multan is quite far from where he was injured, as well as being quite far from Karachi as well. Given the nature of the wounds, the medical care available, and the fact that they transported him hundreds of miles along the poor roads of the frontier, I can only imagine what Mehsud's last days must have been like. Sepsis takes a long time to kill a man, doesn't it?