Man who 'kills humans like chickens' to replace Hakeemullah as Pak Taliban chief? India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Even as the US and Pakistani governments are uncertain over death of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Hakeemullah Mehsud, reports indicate that the banned extremist organisation has appointed its new commander. According to The New York Times, Maulvi Noor Jamal, a native of the restive Orakzai region, has assumed charge as an acting leader of the TTP. It is worth mentioning here that Orakzai is one of the most strategically situated parts of the ungoverned tribal areas because of its proximity to more settled and peaceful parts of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and its capital, Peshawar. Jamal was recently seen officiating the flogging of a teenage boy and two men in a video, aired by a private television channel. According to the newspaper, Jamal, is in his late 30s and was a teacher and prayer leader at a local religious school before he was made a Taliban commander in Kurram by Hakeemullah, who is supposed to have died in a US drone attack in North Waziristan last month. Jamal was given the additional responsibilities for the adjoining area of Orakzai when the Pakistani military began an offensive against the Taliban in its stronghold South Waziristan in October. He is also considered as brutal, and ferocious a warrior like his predecessors Hekeemullah and Baitullah Mehsud. "He kills humans like one will kill chickens," said one resident, on conditions of anonymity, who ran away from Kurram last year because he was wanted by Jamal.