New Pak Taliban chief’s appointment was backed by Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar

Islamabad – New Pakistani Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah’s appointment has been allegedly backed by Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, a media report claimed.

Fazlullah is the first non-Mehsud chief of the militant organization, who hails from the Swat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the selection could not have been possible without the backing of Mullah Omar, Dawn News reports.

Earlier TTP chiefs, Baitullah Mehsud and Hakimullah Mehsud, hailed from the Waziristan region of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

The reason behind the decision was to avoid a possible split within the banned militant organization, the report added.

The report also mentioned that that the official announcement of Fazlullah’s appointment as the new chief was made over the telephone from Afghanistan.

Fazlullah has a five million rupees U.S. bounty on his head, which was announced by the Pakistani government.