HIS death may have been brutal and swift, but his reign of brutality was long — and will surely be enduring in some form after his death. When a Pakistani militant supremo is killed by an American drone at the very time the country’s political leadership is trying to negotiate with the Taliban, the inevitable controversy and uproar can thoroughly obfuscate and confuse matters. So let us try and separate the issues. First, Hakeemullah Mehsud was a brutal, smart and dangerous enemy of Pakistan. When his predecessor Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a drone strike in 2009, Hakeemullah Mehsud had already established himself as the standout in the next tier of the TTP’s leadership. And in his four-plus years at the head of the umbrella militancy group that is the TTP, Mehsud more than proved he was a formidable opponent in the battlefield, a shrewd terrorist and a political mastermind who could manipulate public and political opinion.

Next, a violent militant mastermind he may have been, but what to make of an American drone killing him at this particular point in time? Was it an entirely unilateral strike, with no tacit approval from the Pakistani state — army or civilian — and absolutely no coordination with the military in Fata? If that is the case, Mehsud’s death may in fact create more complications than it can help resolve. For while TTP watchers believe there is no one else in the present TTP leadership who can easily fill Mehsud’s sandals, American fingerprints all over a massively high-profile killing in a country that is already hostile to US interference can lead to all manner of unpredictable consequences at this time. The argument that after the capture of his No. 2 in Afghanistan recently, the Americans only now were able to track down Mehsud is weak. After all, Mehsud was killed in what was known to be his own recently constructed home, a place that almost surely had to have been under at least aerial surveillance. So why now? And to what end? Drones often leave more questions in their wake than answers.

Of course, the overheated response of Imran Khan and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan yesterday must be parsed too. If peace talks were not derailed by repeated militant attacks in recent months, why must an attack on the TTP leadership necessarily scuttle the possibility of talks? Or are the politicians looking for a scapegoat and have pounced on the ultimate outside conspirator they could possibly hope for?