|
Talibs claim Lahore, Peshawar, Dera Khan attacks, issue more threats
 Multiple bombs exploded in two Pakistani cities on Thursday, just hours after Taliban groups issued an extraordinary warning for people to evacuate several large cities, saying they were preparing "major attacks." The groups also claimed responsibility for a bloody attack in Lahore a day earlier that killed at least 26 people.
Hakimullah Mehsud, a young Taliban commander and lieutenant of Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, told the Pakistani newspaper Dawn that more attacks would follow the one in Lahore. Hakimullah Mehsud, who spoke from an undisclosed location, claimed responsibility for the Lahore bombing. "We want the people of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Multan to leave those cities, as we plan major attacks against government facilities in coming days and weeks," he said in a phone call to Reuters. He said that the Lahore attack was a response to Pakistan's recent military campaign against the Taliban in Swat, an area north of the capital, which was overrun by militants earlier this year. "We have been looking for a target from the day the military launched the operation in Swat," Mr. Mehsud said. While Hakimullah Mehsud is known to be aligned with Baitullah Mehsud, it was unclear if he was linked to another Taliban group that claimed responsibility for the attack. That group, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Punjab, said Thursday in a posting on a Turkish militant Web site that it had staged the assault. The head of the Pakistani army, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, who was in Lahore on Thursday, said in a statement that the country would not be terrorized and that the army remained committed to defeating insurgents. The state minister for information, Sumsam Bokhari, said the attacks were a sign of insurgent weakness. "We are really pushing them," he said in a telephone interview. "We are winning the war and that is why they are resorting to these desperate measures." A preliminary police report on the Lahore bombing, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, stated that six attackers in a white Toyota van sprayed bullets at officials in a building that housed an emergency-response unit. Three attackers managed to escape while the other three detonated the explosives-laden van, the report said, killing themselves in the process. The first of the triple bombings in Peshawar occurred at 6:30 p.m., at a second-hand electronics market, known as the Junk Bazaar. Minutes later in the same area, a bomb packed onto a motorcycle exploded near an ice cream shop. Together, the two bombs killed five and wounded 73, the authorities said. The head of the Bomb Disposal Squad, Shafqat Mehmood, said both bombs were on timers. The explosions ignited a fire that gutted electronic and music shops. The police said they chased two men they believed to be responsible and killed them. Some time later, a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed car into a police checkpoint on the outskirts of the city, killing three policemen and wounding three more. At that point, police noticed another man advancing suspiciously toward the checkpoint, said Safwat Ghayyur, a police official. "Our men warned the young man approaching the post to stop, and when he did not they fired at him, killing him on the spot," he said in an interview. In Dera Ismail Khan, a bomb planted in the city's town hall killed three and injured seven, Dawn News reported. Pakistan's prime minister, Yusuf Raza Gilani, condemned the attacks in a statement late on Thursday, saying that "such cowardly acts could not weaken the Government's resolve to stamp out terrorism." The government announced bounties for various militants in newspaper advertisements on Thursday, with rewards starting at $12,400, according to The Associated Press. Heading the most wanted list was Maulana Fazlullah, the Taliban leader in the Swat district, with a bounty of $62,000. Posted by: Seafarious 2009-05-28 |
|
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=270708 |