Washington, April 6 (Inditop) The Taliban have threatened that they would “carry out two bombings a week within Pakistan” in retaliation to the US drone attacks.
Hakimullah Mehsud, a deputy to Baitullah Mehsud who is the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, said in a telephone interview Sunday that the Taliban were responsible for the suicide attacks in Pakistan’s Islamabad and Chakwal, the New York Times reported.
There have been three suicide attacks in Pakistan in the past two days.
Mehsud said the Islamabad bombing Saturday was in “retaliation” to an attack by a remotely piloted American aircraft Wednesday in Orakzai in which at least 10 people were killed.
He said the Pakistani Taliban plan to carry out two bombings a week within Pakistan, the report said.
He did not specify whether the attacks would be by suicide bombers or in commando-style assaults, a technique used against a police training school in Lahore last week, in which eight police officers were killed and more than 100 were wounded.
Hakimullah Mehsud said the attack in Chakwal Sunday was carried out by a group known as the Fidayeen-e-Islam, part of the broad alliance known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban.
He said he would release a video showing that the recent attacks were being conducted by “Pakistanis and Muslims”, and not by foreigners, as the Pakistani government has asserted.
A suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to a Shia mosque in Punjab province’s Chakwal city Sunday, killing at least 22 people.
A suicide bomber struck in Islamabad Saturday night, killing eight paramilitary security personnel.
On Saturday morning, a suicide bomber drove his vehicle into a group of civilians in North Waziristan, killing at least eight people.
