LADDAH: Taliban released on Saturday another audio message purportedly containing the voice of their chief Hakimullah Mehsud, in a bid to scotch rumours about his death in a US drone missile attack three days ago.

Security officials, who insisted that chief of the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban had been killed in the missile attack on Thursday in Shaktoi in South Waziristan, said they were now convinced that the fresh audio was real.

Hakimullah said that he was releasing the message on Jan 16 and the missile attack had been carried out in Shaktoi on Jan 14.

He clarified that some elements were trying to discount his earlier audio message, released a day after the missile attack, as an old recording.

“Despite releasing (an) audio message, our enemy was propagating that I had been killed,” he said.

In the first message, Hakimullah had not mentioned the time and the place of the attack, which created an impression that the message had been recorded before the Shaktoi attack.

The tape said that TTP spokesman Azam Tariq had also issued a statement soon after the drone attack and denied reports about Hakimullah’s death.

“Media should act patiently,” he said, adding that such baseless news disturbed Taliban.

AFP adds: “I am neither wounded nor dead, I am fine,” he said.

“Our enemies are being defeated both in the air and on the ground and are therefore using the media for fabricated propaganda,” he added.

Tags: hakimullah mehsud,TTP,US dronesLINK