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| Pakistani Taliban chief 'buried' | Pakistani Taliban chief 'buried' |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| Pakistan's state TV says Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud has been buried, contradicting earlier militant denials he died in a drone attack this month. | Pakistan's state TV says Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud has been buried, contradicting earlier militant denials he died in a drone attack this month. |
| The state broadcaster - without giving any sources - said Mehsud had been buried in the village of Mamozai in the North Waziristan region. | |
| Reports of his death surfaced after a missile strike in South Waziristan on 14 January killed at least 10 people. | Reports of his death surfaced after a missile strike in South Waziristan on 14 January killed at least 10 people. |
| But the Taliban insisted Mehsud had left the area before the attack. | But the Taliban insisted Mehsud had left the area before the attack. |
| The latest reports of his death could not be verified independently. | |
| A Pakistani army spokesman, Gen Athar Abbas, told the Associated Press news agency that army agents in the north-west were investigating. | |
| The army launched an offensive against militants in South Waziristan in October and is under US pressure to do the same in North Waziristan. | |
| US drones have mounted numerous missile strikes in recent years, and killed the Taliban's former leader, Baitullah Mehsud, last August. | |
| North and South Waziristan - where the Mehsud tribe comes from - are major sanctuaries for militants. | |
| 'Completely safe' | |
| Hours after the 14 January attack in the Shaktoi area, a Taliban spokesman confirmed that Hakimullah Mehsud had recently been there. | |
| "But he had left the place already when the drone attack took place," said spokesman Azam Tariq. | |
| "He is alive and completely safe." | |
| At least two missiles were fired by the drone into the sprawling compound which was used as a religious school in the past, officials said. | |
| Hakimullah Mehsud recently appeared in a video alongside a Jordanian man alleged to have killed seven CIA agents in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan. | |
| He has led the Pakistani Taliban since Baitullah Mehsud's death last summer. | |
| It took the Taliban a number of weeks to admit that its previous leader had been hit in a missile strike. | |
| Pakistan has publicly criticised drone attacks, saying they fuel support for the militants. But observers say in private the authorities have given the go-ahead for the strikes. | |
| The US military does not routinely confirm such attacks, but analysts say the US armed forces and CIA in Afghanistan are the only forces capable of deploying drones in the region. |