An aide to Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud, Maulana Noor Saeed, has rubbished reports of him being killed by a United States drone strike last Wednesday, and said that he is alive, but ill.
Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud was among six militants killed in a US drone strike on Friday in the lawless North Waziristan tribal region.
Mehsud blew himself up with a hand grenade when troops surrounded his hideout around 0830 hrs at Zhob, 300 km north of Balochistan provincial capital Quetta.
The number of people killed in acts of terror reached a record high last year, with almost four in five of these deaths occurring in just five countries, new research shows.
