Rival Taliban leaders killed at meeting to pick Baitullah's successor

Two rival militant leaders were killed following their heated argument over who should be the next Taliban chief in Pakistan, media reports said.

Taliban militants had gathered in the country's volatile South Waziristan region on Saturday to select a new chief after their leader Baitullah Mehsud was killed in an US air strike recently.

A fierce fighting broke out during the Shura (Council) meeting of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in which two favourites for Baitullah's successor, Hakimullah Mehsud and Mufti Wali-ur-Rehman, were killed.

Supporters of the two rival groups opened fire after a bitter argument between them, the Online news agency reported. Two more people were killed in the incident.

However, according to an unnamed source in the report Baitullah Mehsud had nominated Hakimullah to decide over the nomination of new Ameer (Taliban chief) if he was killed. But Hakimullah presented himself as Baitullah's successor.

The report said majority of the participants at the Shura meeting supported Wali-ur-Rehman as their next Taliban chief.