Context
Hakimullah Mehsud, the chief of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has been cut off from his group for over a year and is increasingly losing control, said a newspaper report on Tuesday. Intelligence sources in Islamabad and associates of TTP say that his position is fragile after one of the group’s top commanders defected last week. The defecting leader, Fazl Saeed Haqqani, who was the TTP commander in Kurram, said in late June that he is leaving the group in protest against vicious attacks on civilians. Several other Taliban leaders in Kurram Agency, where security forces have recently launched a military operation, may desert Hakimullah and the military is trying to split more commanders from him, the report added.
