New Pakistan Taliban chief returns to tribal areas after years long stay in Afghanistan

New Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Mullah Fazlullah has returned to the country’s tribal areas after spending years in Afghanistan, a spokesman of the banned outfit said.

A TTP spokesman said that Fazlullah was now commanding from Pakistan, but he did not reveal the exact place where he was based in the tribal areas, Dawn News reports. Fazlullah was elected as leader of the TTP last month after his predecessor Hakimullah Mehsud was killed by a US drone strike in North Waziristan on November 1.

Fazlullah has been based mainly in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan since 2009, when a military operation ended his followers’ two-year rule of northwest Swat valley. He has a 500,000 dollars US government bounty on his head.