Khan Said selected as Wali ur-Rehman is buried in low-key ceremony following attack in North Waziristan
Pakistani Taliban militants have chosen a new deputy commander to replace their previous second-in-command, who was killed in a US drone strike in the North Waziristan region, sources in the militant group have said.
The previous deputy commander, Wali ur-Rehman, was killed in a missile attack by a pilotless aircraft in the militant stronghold on Pakistan's north-west border with Afghanistan on Wednesday, according to Pakistani security officials and militants.
A Pakistani Taliban committee met late on Wednesday to choose a new deputy after Rehman was buried in a low-key ceremony, three Taliban members told Reuters.
The Taliban members said the new number two, Khan Said, 38, had served as Rehman's deputy. He was involved in planning a 2011 attack on a Pakistani navy base in Karachi in which 18 people were killed and a 2012 jailbreak in which nearly 400 militant inmates escaped, they said.
"There was absolute consensus over Khan Said," one Pakistani Taliban member said.
Wednesday's strike, which killed six other people, was the first in Pakistan since the country's general election on 11 May, in which attacks by US drones were a major issue.
It was also the first reported American drone strike since President Barack Obama announced last week that the US was scaling back the programme.
The Pakistani Taliban are a separate entity from the Afghan Taliban, though allied with them. Known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, they have launched devastating attacks against Pakistani military and civilians.
Rehman had been tipped to succeed Hakimullah Mehsud as leader of the Pakistani Taliban and had been viewed as someone less hostile to the Pakistani military than some other top operatives. His death could be viewed as a setback for incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif's efforts to end violence.
Sharif criticised drone strikes during the election campaign, describing them as a challenge to Pakistan's sovereignty. He also offered to hold talks with the militants. "Wali ur-Rehman was a serious and mature man. His death could hurt prospects for an expected peace initiative considered by the new government," a senior security official told Reuters.
However, many observers said any meaningful settlement with the Taliban was unlikely given Sharif's condition that the starting point for talks be respect for the country's democratic order and institutions.
The White House did not confirm the killing, in line with its practice not to discuss drone strikes. But its spokesman, Jay Carney, said Rehman had "participated in cross-border attacks in Afghanistan against US and Nato personnel and horrific attacks against Pakistani civilians and soldiers".
Drones armed with missiles have carried out numerous strikes against militants in the North Waziristan Pashtun tribal region over the past seven years, sometimes with heavy civilian casualties. A US drone killed Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud in 2009. There had been several reports that his successor, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed the same way but they turned out to be false.
North Waziristan has long been a stronghold of militants including Afghan Taliban and their al-Qaida and Pakistani Taliban allies.