Mehsud, who had a $5 million US bounty on his head, was killed on
Friday in the northwestern Pakistani militant stronghold of North
Waziristan, near the Afghan border.
The Pakistani Taliban have
killed thousands of Pakistani civilians and members of the security
forces in their bid to impose Islamist rule but the new government has
been calling for peace talks.
The government denounced Mehsud's
killing as a US bid to derail the talks and summoned the US ambassador
on Saturday to complain.
"The murder of Hakimullah is the murder
of all efforts at peace," said Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, adding
that the government still wanted to pursue talks.
Some politicians have demanded that US military supply lines into Afghanistan be blocked in response to the US attack.
Pakistan
is the main route for supplies for US troops in landlocked Afghanistan,
for everything from food and drinking water to fuel, and the closure of
the routes could be a serious disruption as US and other Western forces
prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of next year.
Pakistani
cooperation is also seen as vital in trying to bring peace to
Afghanistan, in particular in nudging the Afghan Taliban, who are allied
but separate from the Pakistani Taliban, into talks with the Kabul
government.
Relations between the United States and Pakistan have
been seriously strained several times over recent years, including in
2011, when US forces killed Osama bin Laden in a raid that Pakistan said
violated its sovereignty.
Despite its anger, cash-strapped
Pakistan depends to a great extent on US support and the United States,
despite frustrations over the relationship, is unlikely to ever make a
complete break with its nuclear-armed ally.
"REVENGE"
Three
Pakistani Taliban commanders said they had been due meet a government
delegation on Saturday and they had been meeting to discuss the talks.
They said they felt betrayed by Mehsud's killing and were not interested
in talks.
A Pakistani Taliban spokesman vowed a wave of revenge bombings.
Mehsud's followers have been debating who should replace him.
Several militant commanders said on Saturday that 38-year-old Khan Said, known as Sajna, had been chosen.
But
other factions of the Pakistani Taliban alliance were unhappy with the
choice and were supporting other candidates, including Mullah Fazlullah,
the ruthless commander from the Swat Valley, northwest of the capital,
Islamabad, whose men shot and wounded schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai last
year.
Said was seen as a relative moderate and if he became
leader, talks with the government might eventually get going, said
Imtiaz Gul, head of Islamabad-based Centre for Research and Security
Studies think-tank.
But if Fazlullah was chosen, there would be little hope of compromise, he said.
Even
if talks started, it was unclear how successful they would be unless
the government gave significant concessions to the militants, Gul said.
"You're
compromising the rule of law, and ceding ground to non-state actors,
giving in to a small band of criminals. It threatens everything on which
Pakistan stands - the constitution, parliament," Gul said.
"They
haven't thought through the consequences of these talks. They're just
firefighting because they have no long-term remedy for Pakistan's
problems."
While the government has been promoting talks, the
powerful Pakistani military has voiced its opposition to negotiating
with the al Qaeda-linked militants.
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