Pakistan Interrogating Six Senior Taliban Leaders After Weekend Surrender

Pakistani security officials said they were interrogating six senior Pakistani Taliban commanders on June 20 after the group surrendered in the northwestern tribal region of Kurram.

Security officials said those who surrendered during the weekend included Ijaz Mehsud and Khair Muhammad Mehsud, the brother and uncle of the slain Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud.

Authorities said on June 20 that the six Taliban commanders were being interrogated at a military facility in Dera Ismail Khan, a garrison town near the tribal district of South Waziristan.

Pakistan’s Kurram tribal region borders the volatile Afghan provinces of Nangahar, Paktia, and Khost.

Hakimullah Mehsud was killed by a U.S. drone attack in Pakistan's nearby tribal region of North Waziristan in November 2013.

After Hakimullah’s death, his brother Ijaz Mehsud joined the so-called Sajna group -- a splinter faction of the banned Tehreek-i Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Based on reporting by Dawn.com and dpa