MARDAN - Chief Minister of NWFP Amir Hadier Khan Hoti said that banned Tehrik-i-Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud had died and God bless him. He said this while talking to the local newsmen at his residence Hoti House at Mardan on the second day of Eid-ul-Fitr. The Chief Minister said that Adal bill would soon be signed by the Governor. He said that the previous government had passed Hasba bill without taking the Federal Government into confidence, adding  that "About this bill we took the Federal Government into confidence and within the time frame the Governor will sign this bill." He further said, "Our government wanted to strengthen the province. At district level Aman Jirga was organized and the good effects of this Jirga are coming out. Through these Jirga systems the people of Bunier, Dir, Malaknd and Swat are cooperating with the security forces and other agencies against Taliban and terrorists." He said that under a great conspiracy the leaders, Ministers, Members of Assemblies and workers of Awami National Party were being targeted and their houses and property being burnt by the Taliban and other terrorists. He said that they were not afraid of these tactics and the history of ANP was full of sacrifices. Answering to a question the Chief Minister said that security forces and other law enforcement agencies were performing their duties to maintain pace in Swat. He said that their straggle against terrorists and Taliban would be continued till they did not finish these elements and gave protection to the people of the province from Taliban and other terrorists. AFP adds: Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud is seriously ill with diabetes and may even be in a coma, security officials and militant commanders close to the Al-Qaeda-linked warlord said Wednesday. Local television reported that Mehsud, the head of the country's umbrella Taliban organisation, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), had died overnight - but officials and militant sources insisted he was still alive. The shadowy Mehsud was accused by the previous government and by the US Central Intelligence Agency of masterminding the slaying of former premier Benazir Bhutto in December 2007. He has denied any involvement. "Baitullah is sick. His condition is precarious," a senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Other officials gave similar accounts of his health. The father of a woman to whom Mehsud was recently engaged to be married -she would be his second wife - told friends Mehsud was "in a coma", security officials said. A senior Taliban commander close to Mehsud confirmed that he was ill but insisted he would pull through. "He is only suffering from a bout of diabetes. He is under treatment but he will be all right," commander Rahim Burki told AFP. Another commander said Mehsud required frequent medical care. "Baitullah needs medical attention two or three times a week and he is growing weaker," the commander, named Razaq, told AFP. Mehsud is based in the lawless South Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan and independent verification of his condition was impossible. Pakistani officials said that about 80 percent of the more than 70 suicide bombings across the country since July 2007 were carried out by members of Mehsud's own tribe. The Taliban group he heads is influential in South and North Waziristan and also in the tribal region of Bajaur, where forces launched a major anti-militant offensive in early August. But a battle to succeed Mehsud has already started in the TTP, security officials said. A leading Taliban commander called Qari Hussain - who styles himself Zarqawi after the slain Jordanian leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - was lobbying to take over in case he dies, officials said. He faces opposition from two other top militants, Bajaur-based Faqir Hussain and a commander named Abdul Wali Khan. Any succession struggle could be good for the government, which has been trying to fan divisions between Mehsud's group and other Taliban warlords in South Waziristan. One of them, Mullah Nazir, who has refused to join the TTP, led a government-backed operation against central Asian Al-Qaeda militants in South Waziristan in March 2007.