Pakistan's ailing Taliban chief married a young girl in second marriage

The Pakistani Taliban leader has married for a second time a young girl from his tribe, around two weeks after several news channels claimed he had died following a prolonged ailment, media reports said on Wednesday.

According to The News daily, Baitullah Mehsud, the head of a united front of smaller Taliban groups called the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or Pakistan Taliban Movement, openly celebrated his wedding in Dwa Toi village in his stronghold of South Waziristan, a tribal district along the Afghan border.
Rice and lamb meat was served to the guests of the ethnic Pashtun guerrilla commander, who has been accused of the assassination of former PM Benazir Bhutto.

Mehsud, in his mid 30s, suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney disease. Earlier this month CNN and Pakistani Geo news channel reported his death.

"The doctor never left Baitullah alone (during the wedding)," one guest told the newspaper, adding that he apparently had a device in his hand in case he needed drugs to be administered to him in emergency.

The bride, whose age is not mentioned in the report, is from Mehsud's Shabikhel tribe. Mehsud went for the second marriage because he had only four daughters but no son from his first wife, a close aide to the Taliban commander told the newspaper.