Within the past two and a half months, two of the most talked-about insurgent leaders of South Asia have been reported killed. A cluster of questions about the killings and their consequences - so strikingly and curiously similar despite all the differences between the two cases - have been raised and may continue to be discussed in the days to come.

    The first common question raised about the killings of Velupillai Prabhakaran of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and Baitullah Mehsud of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is: have they really been killed? The second poser is about the successor to the slain leader and the sequel to the killing in each case.

    Least heard so far, however, are questions about the larger and long-term consequences of the killings.

    One of the immediate reactions to the announcement by the Sri Lankan army of the killing of Prabhakaran on May 19 was not just disbelief, but a strong denial from surviving Tigers and pro-LTTE quarters abroad. Particularly strident was the statement from Selvarasa Pathmanathan, alias Kumaran Pathmanathan and widely known as KP, who was appointed head of the LTTE's international department some time before. He asserted that "our national leader" would reappear and resume contacts with his people "at an appropriate time."

    The same KP, after what he considered an appropriate interval, announced the "martyrdom" of "our matchless leader" and called for a period of mourning. The end of Prabhakaran would now seem established, though some Tamil politicians in India still assert he is alive.

    Almost identical was the response to reports about the death of Baitullah in a drone attack on August 5. The instant reaction from his close aides, including the TTP commander, Hakimullah Mehsud, was that the claim about the killing was a concoction and "a conspiracy." They also promised on August 8 to release a recorded message from Baitullah and proof of his existence "within two days." The deadline was not kept.

    What Waziristan, the region of Baitullah's reign, and the rest of Pakistan received instead was an official statement from the TTP declaring the leader's death and calling for 15 days' mourning. This has nearly spelt an end to the controversy, but some second-line Taliban leaders still swear he is alive and is only becoming an invisible commander like Osama bin Laden of al-Qaeda.

    The parallels continue, when it comes to details of the killings. Versions of the last encounters of the two leaders vary. A widely believed account in Prabhakaran's case is that he was killed despite the decision of outnumbered Tigers to wave the white flag and surrender. The Sri Lankan army has rejected the report that does not redound to its glory. The Pentagon, however, would seem only to rejoice with pride over reports that credit one of its remotely operated Predator drones with the killing.

    The similarities extend even to secondary details. If Prabhakaran's wife and elder son (if not his daughter and younger son) are reported to have been killed as well, Baitullah's younger spouse is also said to have died with him. The end in both cases, say several accounts, was exacerbated by chronic illness - both the leaders were known to be diabetic and, according to one report, Baitullah was hit while undergoing treatment for a kidney problem.

    The more important similarity between the two killings, of course, is that they took out the most charismatic leaders of two major insurgencies. Fifty-four-year-old Prabhakaran had, over the years, achieved a dominance that few in the LTTE dared to question. Thirty-five-year-old Baitullah was still the head of a collective leadership, but no one doubted his growing dominance in the TTP, either.

    "Who after him?" has naturally been among the questions raised by the slain heroes' worshipers as well as their sworn enemies. Inevitably, too, reports of the killings have led to conflicts among possible successors.

    KP had sought to crown himself as Prabhakaran's heir, only to be denounced as a pretender to the throne by a section of Sri Lankan Tamils, especially the diaspora in the West and elsewhere. Reports suggest that KP's arrest in Bangkok and transportation to Colombo on August 6 resulted from rivalries within the LTTE. A succession battle is said to be on in the TTP between rival commanders Hakimullah and Waliur Rehman, with the Pakistani media splashing stories about a shootout between the two at a tribal assembly to discuss the issue.

    The succession battles in both cases are seen, particularly in the pro-government media, as struggles for a vast inheritance of wealth at stake.

    KP, as the person in charge of weapons procurement for the LTTE, is said to have sought control of funds running into millions of dollars acquired through illicit trades in drugs and arms among other means. Less was said about such a legacy in the TTP's case immediately after Baitullah's reported killing. A subsequent story, however, says he "had built a vast financial empire on drug and weapon smuggling, donations from al-Qaeda and wealthy Arabs." Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik says that arms recovered from the TTP include "a heavy depot of ammunition [...] only sold to states not to individuals."

    Let us brush aside impertinent questions about the military budgets of Colombo and Islamabad. The more important poser is about what the two killings mean for the war-weary people of Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

    After Prabhakaran's killing, several security experts - in Pakistan, India and elsewhere - came out in fresh defense of a theory they had been forced to discard before. The event, they said, proved that a military solution to the problem of terrorism was possible. The experts and the establishment in Pakistan are saying something even worse by their silence this time on a sensitive subject. Not a word from them on US drone attacks, which they have opposed hitherto as assaults on the country's sovereignty and unfortunate civilians in its outback.

    If these are the lessons Colombo and Islamabad (besides others) draw from the twin killings, we have not exactly witnessed a leap towards peace in the region.