E-Paper
Pakistan Taliban threatens to target top leaders of ruling coalition
The threat was directed at Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari led Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
Pakistan government's effort to bring the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to the negotiation table received a major setback on Wednesday as the group threatened to target the top leaders of the two major political parties in the ruling coalition if they continued to support tough measures against them. The threat was directed at Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari led Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
"If these two parties remain firm on their position and continue to be slaves of the army, then action will be taken against their leading people," the TTP, which is believed to be close to al-Qaeda and has ideological linkages with the Afghan Taliban, said in a statement.
It warned that "people should avoid getting close to such leading people."
Claiming that the group was only waging what it called "jihad" in Pakistan, the terror outfit said "our target is the security agencies occupying the country".
"Although Bilawal is still young, this poor man has not yet witnessed the state of war," the statement read.
Bilawal Bhutto's mother and former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto was killed allegedly by the TTP militants in a terrorist attack in 2007.
The warning comes just days after the civil-military leadership of the country met under the banner of the National Security Committee and vowed to show "zero tolerance" for terrorism in the country.
When asked about the TTP threat to target leaders of the two leading political parties, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Wednesday said that there was a “general threat of terrorism” and the government was already taking the necessary precautions.
The TTP has been blamed for several deadly attacks across Pakistan, including an attack on army headquarters in 2009, assaults on military bases and the 2008 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.
(With PTI inputs)
