Pakistan Taliban leader shot dead

A top leader of Pakistan’s Taliban has been shot dead in the country’s tribal region near the Afghan border, according to Pakistani intelligence officials.

Asmatullah Shaheen Bitani and three aides are said to have died in the shooting in North Waziristan.

Bitani, who sat on the Pakistani Taliban’s executive council, was appointed interim chief of the militant group after a suspected US drone strike killed his former chief Hakimullah Mehsud last year.

He has since been replaced by another leader, Mullah Fazlullah.

Officials say it is not clear who killed Bitani.