Pakistani Taliban says attacks not targeted at foreigners

Islamabad, Dec 28 (EFE).- The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) said Wednesday that foreigners living in the country were not the target of their attacks as the south Asian nation witnesses a new wave of terror incidents after the Afghan Taliban took over Kabul last year.

The TTP “is fighting against the oppressive occupation security forces. It is clear to all that we don’t have any external (foreign) agenda,” Muhammed Khurasani, the spokesperson of the outlawed group, said in a statement.

Khurasani claimed the security alert for diplomats in Pakistan was just a “tactic” by the government to “extract dollars” from abroad, and urged the concerned countries to not fall under these “tricks” and be manipulated.

The TTP is a separate insurgent movement from the Afghan Taliban but shares their ideology, however, the Pakistani authorities believe the TTP leadership has been holed up in neighboring Afghanistan.

The Pakistani government has issued high alert and beefed up security especially in the capital city of Islamabad, where a suicide blast killed three people including a policeman last week.

On Tuesday, the government heightened security in Islamabad putting up several check posts in the city and urging citizens and foreigners to carry their identification documents with them.

Following the attack, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and some other countries issued security alerts asking their citizens to limit their movement and avoid unnecessary travel within the city.

The TTP is an umbrella group of several armed organizations established in 2007 with the aim of establishing an Islamic state in Pakistan.

Since its inception, the group has carried out a brutal campaign of terrorist attacks across the country and killed thousands of people, including an assassination attempt in 2012 against activist Malala Yousafzai, who was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Although Islamabad and the Pakistani Taliban began a process of dialog last year and agreed on a ceasefire, with the Afghan Taliban playing mediator, the TTP has resumed attacks after declaring that the talks had failed. EFE

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