ISLAMABAD — The Pakistani Taliban appointed as its new chief Thursday a hard-line commander responsible for some of the country’s worst violence, including the recent killing of a Pakistani general and the attempted assassination of schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai.
After conferring for six days in North Waziristan, 17 members of the group’s governing council selected Maulana Fazlullah as the militant group’s new operational and tactical leader, said Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid in a phone interview.
Fazlullah replaces Hakimullah Mehsud, who was killed by a U.S. drone a week ago in an attack that brought vows of retribution and is complicating relations between the United States and Pakistan.
In choosing a figure whom some analysts say is Pakistan’s most feared man, Shahid said the Taliban’s goal was to signal that its insurgency against the government will continue.
Fazlullah is wanted on 104 criminal charges in the Swat Valley but has evaded capture, despite several false reports over the years of his death in a drone strike.
