ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – The Pakistani government has  received reports that shooting broke out between two rivals for  the leadership of the Pakistani Taliban, and one of them may  have been killed, the interior minister said on Saturday.

Pakistani news channels were carrying unconfirmed reports  that Hakimullah Mehsud, one of the movement’s most powerful  commanders, had been killed at a shura, or council meeting, held  to decide who would succeed slain leader Baitullah Mehsud.

“The infighting was between Wali-ur-Rehman and Hakimullah  Mehsud,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik told Reuters. “We have  information that one of them has been killed. Who was killed we  will be able to say later after confirming.”

A Taliban official in South Waziristan, where the meeting  took place, told Reuters the government had fabricated reports  of fighting between the different factions.

Noor Said, who had been a deputy spokesman under Baitullah,  said: “There was no fighting in the shura. Both Wali-ur-Rehman  and Hakimullah are safe and sound.”
Western governments with troops in Afghanistan are watching  to see if any new Pakistani Taliban leader would shift focus  from fighting the Pakistani government and put the movement’s  weight behind the Afghan insurgency led by Mullah Mohammad Omar.

An intelligence officer in South Waziristan said he had  reports that Hakimullah Mehsud died in the shooting after heated  exchanges between the rivals at the meeting held around 4:30  p.m.(1030 GMT).

“According to reports Wali-ur-Rehman fired and killed  Hakimullah Mehsud,” the official said.
State-run Pakistan Television (PTV) said there were reports  that both leaders might have been killed in a shoot-out.
The shura was called in Taliban-controlled territory in  Waziristan, a northwest tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Earlier in the day Hakimullah Mehsud had telephoned  journalists to deny that Baitullah Mehsud had been killed in a  missile strike by US drone aircraft on Wednesday.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on  Friday the government was “pretty certain” that Mehsud perished  in the missile blitz on Wednesday that also killed his second  wife, a brother, seven bodyguards and destroyed his car.