‘We have arrived in Punjab’: Taliban warns Pakistan govt
The Pakistani Taliban faction behind the brutal Easter Sunday suicide bombing at a crowded park in Lahore has warned that the terror attack was a “message” to the government about their “arrival” in Punjab, as the death toll on Tuesday rose to 74 after two more persons succumbed to their injuries.
The dead include 29 children and 10 women; some 20 were Christians. More than 300 people were injured in the blast.
A suicide bomber – believed to be in his 20s – blew himself at Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, which is one of the popular parks in Lahore, a relatively peaceful city in Pakistan.
He struck at a time when thousands of people were visiting the park on account of Easter.
Jamaatul Ahrar, a splinter group of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, claimed the attack, saying they carried out “this attack to target Christians.”
“Also, this is a message to the Pakistani Prime Minister that we have arrived in Punjab,” the group’s spokesman said.
The spokesman even taunted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Twitter. “After the Lahore attack, Nawaz Sharif repeated old words to give himself false assurances,” he wrote.
“Nawaz Sharif should know that war has reached his doorstep, and God willing the mujahideen will be the winners in this war.”
Sharif on Monday vowed to eliminate terrorism. “Terrorists cannot dent our resolve. Our struggle will continue until the complete elimination of the menace of terrorism,” he said.
The group had previously claimed responsibility for suicide bombings at two churches in Lahore in March 2015, and justified the attacks by terming Pakistan a “land of war”.
“The Christians, Jews, and Zorastrians in Pakistan have neither converted to Islam nor paying Jizya. Under these circumstances, Christians, Hindus, etc, are not at peace, nor are their places of worship safe,” it had said then.
It also claimed responsibility for a suicide attack at the Wagah Border minutes after the popular flag-lowering ceremony ended on November 2, 2014. Sixty-one people died in the blast.
Meanwhile, the Punjab Police faced embarrasment when the person they said was the bomber turned out to be a victim.
Lahore police have issued the sketch of the suspected Taliban suicide bomber. The picture released by the militant organisation and the sketch by Lahore police have not yet been confirmed to be of the same person.
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Source:Indianexpress
