PESHAWAR: The Pakistani Taliban have decided to appoint Khan Said Sajna alias Khalid, the South Waziristan Taliban chief, as their new chief after a US drone strike killed Hakimullah Mehsud in the restive North Waziristan tribal agency on Friday evening.
The decision was taken during the meeting of the outlawed militant group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Majlis-e-Shura (central advisor committee) which met at an undisclosed location in the North Waziristan tribal area on Saturday.
Sajna received 43 out of 60 votes of the members of the TTP Shura.
The Shura was considering four names for the post which included Khan Said Sajna alias Khalid, Umar Khalid Khurasani (Chief of Mohmand Agency Taliban), Mullah Fazlullah (chief of the Swat Taliban) and Ghalib Mehsud.
Sajna, 36, is credited with masterminding a 2012 jailbreak in which the Taliban freed 400 inmates in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Bannu.
