Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud has been killed in a U.S. drone strike on Friday, a senior official of the militant group confirmed.
According to the BBC, the unmanned aircraft fired four missiles targeting a vehicle near the Miran Shah town in the north-western region of North Waziristan, killing Mehsud and four other people.
A senior Taliban official said Mehsud's funeral would be held on Saturday, the report added.
Interior minister Chaudhry Nisar criticized the drone strike, saying that this attack was an attempt to sabotage Pakistan's peace talks with Taliban.
The strike came just a day after the Pakistan government announced that they were scheduled to send a three-member team to start peace negotiations with the Taliban.
Mehsud gained prominence in 2007 as a commander under the militant group's founder Baitullah Mehsud.
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He went on to become the leader of the Pakistani Taliban in 2009, after Baitullah Mehsud died in a U.S. drone strike.
Mehsud, who was thought to be responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, had a 5 million dollars FBI bounty on his head.