The death of Baitullah Mehsud, the most powerful Taliban commander in Pakistan, has led to a bloody and potentially divisive rift among militants active in the country’s border region along Afghanistan, senior Pakistani intelligence officials said on Sunday.

Mehsud was killed, along with one of his wives and several bodyguards, in what was believed to be a US missile strike last week in the border region. His body has not been found, although Pakistan’s foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, on Friday publicly cited intelligence reports confirming his death.