Profile: Baitullah Mehsud

The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan and M Ilyas Khan profile pro-Taleban militant commander Baitullah Mehsud, who now has a $5m US reward on his head.

Baitullah Mehsud has an aversion to publicity and photographs

Baitullah Mehsud, as his name suggests, belongs to the Mehsud tribe in Pakistan's troubled South Waziristan region.

Since 9/11 he has grown in strength and stature and is said to command about 20,000 pro-Taleban militants. A majority belong to the Mehsud tribe.

Mehsud's South Waziristan is regarded as a safe haven for al-Qaeda and the Taleban.

In this regard, he is said to have played a major role, especially in providing a sanctuary for fighters to operate in Afghanistan.

After a failed peace accord in February 2005, Baitullah Mehsud's militants waged a guerrilla war that virtually pushed the army out of South Waziristan.

Only jihad can bring peace to the world Baitullah Mehsud, speaking to the BBC in October, 2007 Meeting Baitullah Mehsud In pictures: Taliban stronghold

Since 2006 there has also been a wave of suicide bombings that has swept across Pakistan - credited by intelligence operatives to Mehsud's lieutenant, Qari Hussain, among others.

Since the 2007 Red Mosque siege in Islamabad - in which the security forces confronted militant students - Mehsud has further trained his guns on the Pakistani authorities.

The siege gave rise to a larger militant alliance across the tribal region called the Tehrik Taleban Pakistan (TTP), of which Mehsud became the leader.

The Pakistani government has also accused him of ordering former PM Benazir Bhutto's assassination in December 2007.

Mehsud has denied he had anything to do with the attack.

Pakistani officials have complained that the US has failed to hit Mehsud with drone attacks despite them having supplied co-ordinates three times. The reason given was that Mehsud has been more Pakistan- than Afghan-focused.

But the dynamics in the region are changing.

The government says it has cowed the second largest TTP faction - in Bajaur.

A third - Maulana Fazlullah's in Swat - is in peace talks with the government.

Mehsud himself has now joined a wider Waziristan-based alliance with groups led by Maulvi Nazeer in Wana and Hafiz Gul Bahadur in Miranshah.

Inter-factional rivalries were said to behind a deadly bomb attack on a restaurant in the town of Jandola in March 2009 that left at least 10 people dead.

Aversion

Intelligence reports claim that Mehsud's force has a large number of foreigners.

However, when the BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan visited the Mehsuds in October 2007, no foreign fighters were visible.

The few journalists who have met Mehsud speak of his earnest desire to support his actions by his interpretation of Islamic ideals.

The emphasis here is on jihad (holy war) against foreign occupying forces in Afghanistan and the establishment of an Islamic state.

These include the use of suicide bombers and cross-border attacks on international forces based there.

There is also his aversion to publicity in general, and to photography in particular.

It is an aversion he shares with Taleban supreme commander Mullah Omar, with whom he is said to have a "good relationship".

Commander Mehsud says it is the duty of every Muslim to wage jihad against "the infidel forces of America and Britain".

Talking to the BBC in an exclusive interview earlier in 2007, he said the militants were determined to achieve their goal of freeing Afghanistan through jihad.

"Only jihad can bring peace to the world," he said.

The militant leader on several occasions has openly admitted to crossing the border to fight foreign troops.