The US media — including prominent outlets like CNN, New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal — also quoted Taliban sources as saying that Hakimullah had died of the wounds he suffered in a Jan 14 drone attack in North Waziristan.

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief was moved to the Orakzai agency for treatment where he died and was buried more than a week ago.

But the media reports also noted contradiction in reports about where he died. They quoted some sources as saying that Hakimullah died in Multan while on his way to a treatment centre in Karachi.

Word of his death contradicts a statement by a Taliban spokesman last week that Hakimullah was alive and in hiding.

The attack that targeted the Taliban leader came a few days after Hakimullah appeared in a video released by the Pakistani Taliban. In it, he sits next to Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, the man thought to be the suicide bomber who killed seven CIA officers and consultants and a Jordanian army captain at a base in eastern Afghanistan on Dec 30.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack, saying it was carried out to avenge the death of Hakimullah’s predecessor Baitullah Mehsud who was killed in a US drone strike last year.

The attack that initially injured Hakimullah also killed 12 militants in Pasalkot which sits between North and South Waziristan.