Pakistan believes Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who has a $5 million (€3.4m) US bounty on his head, was probably killed with his wife and bodyguards in a missile attack two days ago.
An intelligence officer in South Waziristan said that Mehsud's funeral had already taken place, while Pakistani media cited their own security sources, saying Mehsud was dead.
Diplomats in Islamabad say Mehsud's death would mark a major coup for Pakistan, but many doubt it will help Western troops fighting the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
Most of his focus has been on attacking Pakistan's government and security forces.
‘We suspect he was killed in the missile strike,’ Interior Minister Rehman Malik said. ‘We have some information, but we don't have material evidence to confirm it.’
Taliban leaders presumed dead have sometimes resurfaced later and there were reports from other media quoting Taliban sources saying that Mehsud was wounded and others saying he was dead.
Mehsud declared himself leader of the Pakistan Taliban, grouping around 13 factions in the northwest, in late 2007 and his fighters have staged a wave of suicide attacks inside Pakistan and on Western forces across the border in Afghanistan.
He is accused of being behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December 2007, a charge he has denied.
A US official said there were grounds to believe Mehsud was dead.
US missile attacks on Mehsud territory in South Waziristan became more frequent after Pakistan ordered a military offensive against him in June.
