ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 6 (UPI) -- Leadership disputes among members of the Pakistani Taliban might signal a decline in the militant group's influence, an analyst said.
Taliban commanders in a tribal district near the Afghan border expressed frustration that a leadership council sacked Taliban deputy commander Maulvi Faqir Muhammad presumably for trying to broker a peace deal with the Pakistani government.
A group of Taliban commanders told The New York Times they were "disappointed" by the decision.
Taliban outposts along the volatile Afghan border have been the target of Pakistani military operations and U.S. missile strikes.
Khalid Aziz, a former provincial administrator, told the newspaper the Pakistani Taliban is on the decline.
"Its people are coming under pressure," he was quoted as saying. "They are starting to go back to their tribes."
A research analyst in Islamabad told the newspaper the Pakistani military has been unable to exploit fractures in the Pakistani Taliban.
The militant group was classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government in 2010 for its alleged role in 2010 plot to set off a bomb in New York City.
