Taliban commanders were reportedly meeting to choose a successor to Baitullah Mehsud [EPA]
A number of senior Pakistani Taliban figures have been killed and others injured after a gun battle at a meeting in South Waziristan, sources have told Al Jazeera.
The meeting had apparently been called to choose a successor to Baitullah Mehsud, the Taliban leader reportedly killed in a US missile attack earlier in the week.
"We can confirm that the clash took place and that would indicate a serious rift in the Pakistani Taliban," Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from the capital, Islamabad, said.
"It is also yet another indicator that Baitullah Mehsud may have been killed in that attack carried out by US drones."
Reports on Saturday said that both Hakimullah Meshud and Wali ur Rehman, two possible successors to Baitullah Mehsud, had been killed in the shooting, but there was no independent confirmation of their deaths.
Taliban infighting
Hakimullah Mehsud served as a deputy to Baitullah Mehsud and Wali ur Rehman was a senior commander in the umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In depth
Profile: Baitullah Mehsud The US is offering a $5m reward for information leading to the capture of Mehsud [EPA]
Witness: Pakistan in crisis .. 4 part video inside .. Rageh and his team had been the last television crew inside the Red Mosque before the siege began in July 2007 .. on that subject .. plus 4 other 4 parts on other topics .. WOW! videos ..
Riz Khan: The battle for the soul of Pakistan When Pakistan was founded in 1947, it was dubbed "the Islamic state experiment".
In Urdu, Pakistan means "land of the pure".
Now, more than 60 years later, the country is locked in a battle to define what brand of Islam it will follow, and just how "pure" Pakistan should be.
Whether in Pakistan or Afghanistan, questions like should people be free to listen to music, shave their beard, or not wear a headscarf, can deeply divide the country.
Moderates are defending women's right to go to school and work, and arguing that society should not interfere in personal matters.
Social conservatives, such as the pro-Taliban forces, take issue with all of that, and want to impose the death penalty for adultery, rape, blasphemy, and lashes for fornicators and drunks.
Many see it as a battle between the rural majority and urban minority, the rich and the poor, the commoners and the elites.
Either way, it is tearing the region apart, and becoming bloodier day by day.
On Tuesday, Riz speaks with veteran Pakistani human rights activist Asma Jahangir on the battle for the soul of Pakistan.
Rehman Malik, Pakistan's interior minister, said intelligence reports suggested that one of the two men had been killed.
"We have information that one of them has been killed. Who was killed we will be able to say later after confirming," he said.
"The infighting was between Wali ur Rehman and Hakimullah Meshud."
However, a Taliban official in South Waziristan insisted that the government had fabricated reports of fighting between the different factions.
Noor Said, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, said: "There was no fighting in the shura. Both Wali ur Rehman and Hakimullah are safe and sound."
The reports have added to earlier confusion surrounding the reported death of Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban leader who had a US bounty of $5m on his head.
'Dissent and discord'
However, Syer Tariq Pirzada, a strategic affairs analyst in Islamabad, told Al Jazeera that
the reported shootout strongly indicated that Baitullah Mehsud was "dead or functionally dead".
"Had he been alive, he was such a strong leader, he would not have allowed this dissent, this discord and this violent confrontation ... to happen," he said.
Earlier on Saturday, Hakimullah Mehsud had told reporters by telephone that Baitullah Mehsud was in good health and would soon appear in the media to prove that he was alive.
Mahmood Shah, a former security chief for the tribal regions, said that Hakimullah Mehsud's claims could have been part of the power struggle within the movement.
"I think that this denial from them ... doesn't appear to be holding much water," he said. "It should have come earlier and ... much stronger."
"There is, I think, a struggle going on for the leadership, and Hakimullah Mehsud is one of the contenders."
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