Hakimullah Mehsud Alive : intelligence sources

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Hakimullah Mehsud.

Pakistani Taliban chief ‘ Hakimullah Mehsud ‘ is now believed to have survived a US missile strike earlier this year, but has lost clout within the militant network, a senior intelligence official said Thursday.

Mehsud was reported to have died in a drone strike in South Waziristan in January 2009 but, although Pakistan’s interior minister claimed he had been killed, the death was never confirmed by either US or Pakistani intelligence.Mehsud was only injured during the drone strike.