A struggle for power between Pakistani Taliban commanders divided over whether to talk to the government has erupted in violence, with dozens of fighters killed along the Afghan border in recent weeks, Pakistani security officials have said.
It is unclear if the fighting will weaken an insurgency aimed at bringing down the nuclear-armed Pakistani state, but the security agencies will be hoping to turn it to their advantage.
The violence is between rivals in the Mehsud tribe, one of numerous ethnic Pashtun groups that straddle the Afghan-Pakistan border who have for generations battled outsiders to preserve their autonomy.
The Pakistani Taliban, a loose alliance of militant groups drawn largely from Pashtun communities, has been fighting for years to overthrow the government and impose Islamic law.
The rivals are from the same sub-group of the Mehsuds, a tribe based in the South Waziristan region that provides the Taliban with the bulk of its money and many of its fighters.
On one side is a commander called Khan "Sajna" Said, who acts as an arbitrator for the Taliban in the city of Karachi and controls lucrative extortion rackets there, according to an analyst with extensive contacts in the insurgency.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article