Lahore, Aug 8 : After the killing of dreaded militant commander Baitullah Mehud, the US may now seek to get more cooperation from the Pakistan Government in hunting down Taliban leaders who are based in the country, but conduct most of their attacks in Afghanistan, according to analysts.

The report said the drone strike that apparently the killed Pakistan Taliban chief on Wednesday “could not have pleased US officials more, since Mehsud led an army of 20,000 Taliban who were more focused on overthrowing the government than on returning Taliban rule to Afghanistan”.

The US will now probably be seeking a “quid pro quo”, Christian Science Monitor quoted Imtiaz Gul, head of the Centre for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad as saying.

He says the US is going to have the following conversation with Pakistan: “We (the US) took care of a person who was inflicting damage against Pakistan now you take care of those going after the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.”

The apparent killing of Mehsud “should clear the way for greater coordination as far as the other militants are concerned,” the Daily Times quoted him, as saying.

The Christian Science Monitor report said cooperation had so far been hampered by mistrust on both sides.

“Just as US commanders have complained that the Afghanistan-focused Taliban have not been a priority for Pakistan, some officials have complained the US has ignored ‘actionable intelligence’ on Mehsud in the past”, it said.

“If an era of closer cooperation is indeed at hand, two leaders in the US crosshairs are Sirajuddin Haqqani and Mullah Omar”.

It said Haqqani and his family form the Haqqani network, a group based in North Waziristan.

The CIA has accused the Pakistan Government of maintaining close ties with the group, which is also linked to Al Qaeda and sometimes operates in concert with the Taliban. The Haqqani network has masterminded some of the deadliest terror attacks in Afghanistan, it said. (ANI)