Profile: Hakimullah Mehsud Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud survived an American drone attack in the north-west of the country in January, intelligence sources say. Officials said at the time that he was killed in a US missile attack along with at least 10 suspected militants. Pakistani intelligence officials now say that Mr Mehsud was only wounded in the attack - although his authority within the Taliban has diminished. From the outset, the Taliban consistently denied that he was dead. Internal squabbling The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says that claims by US and Pakistani officials that Hakimullah Mehsud had been killed always lacked credibility. The BBC also received a video of Hakimullah Mehsud, but it was difficult to determine when the footage was shot. Our correspondent says that another argument against his death was the fact that there was no leadership challenge within the Pakistani Taliban after his reported demise - a development that normally would have been expected to have taken place. Drones can be remotely controlled from thousands of miles away The Taliban waited about three weeks to confirm that Hakimullah Mehsud's predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, had been killed in an August strike amid widespread reports of internal squabbling over who would be his successor. While the militants have not let reporters interview Hakimullah Mehsud since January, there was no martyrdom video or official announcement of his death posted on jihadi websites - which also usually happens when a prominent Taliban member is killed. Intelligence officials say that Hakimullah Mehsud's power has however been reduced in recent months, and other Taliban commanders such as Waliur Rehman are now overshadowing him. Correspondents point out that getting accurate information independently from the Pakistan's tribal regions where the Taliban leader is based is difficult because the area is remote and dangerous and there are legal restrictions on who can visit. In recent months the army has being carrying out an offensive against the Pakistani Taliban in the north-west, forcing militant leaders to re-deploy to their main stronghold in North Waziristan. The US stepped up efforts to kill Hakimullah Mehsud after he appeared in a video with a Jordanian suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees in late December in eastern Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban have carried out numerous suicide and other attacks in the country in recent years.
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According to Pakistani intelligence, the leader of the  in Pakistan, , is still alive, contradicting claims by US and Pakistani officials that he was killed in a January drone attack.

At the time of the attack, officials reported that Mehsud was killed along with ten other rebels, but Pakistani sources now say he was only wounded in the attack. According to unidentified sources, his authority within the Taliban had significantly diminished after the attack, and is now overshadowed by other commanders such as .  Four officers from Pakistan's main spy agency said that they believed Mehsud was alive, citing both surveillance of the Taliban, as well as reports from sources within the Taliban.

Despite his apparent survival, US defense officials downplayed the significance of the revelation. A spokesman for the Pentagon in Washington, DC said that there was "no evidence" that Mehsud was "executing or exerting authority over the Pakistan Taliban as he once did", adding: "I don't know if that reflects him being alive or dead, but he clearly is not running the Pakistani Taliban anymore."

The Taliban continuously denied reports Mehsud was killed, although they refused to offer proof such as videos, saying it could pin Mehsud to a specific location. According to the BBC, however, claims that Mehsud had been killed were always suspect, as the Taliban neither officially announced his death nor announced a new leader that would have taken his place - both common practices.