Taliban claim Lahore attack to avenge offensive

[Waqas 48]

PESHAWAR: Pakistani Taliban on Thursday claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in Lahore to avenge a military offensive in the northwest and vowed further deadly strikes.

"We claim responsibility for the Lahore suicide attack. It is revenge for the Swat military operation," Hakimullah Mehsud said from an undisclosed place, saying he was a spokesman for Pakistan Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.

Baitullah Mehsud commands Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) and is Pakistan''s most wanted militant with a five-million-dollar reward posted by the United States.

On Wednesday, 24 people were killed and 300 wounded when a van packed with explosives levelled a police building and damaged the provincial headquarters of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency in the eastern city of Lahore.

Baitullah has also claimed responsibility for a gun, grenade and suicide assault on a police academy near Lahore on March 30.

"If the government -- at the behest of America -- launches more operations against us, more government installations will be targeted," Hakimullah Mehsud, who is a commander and deputy to Baitullah Mehsud, said.

"I love the common citizens of Pakistan. I appeal to them to vacate their cities as there will be more such massive attacks, more dangerous than this and we will target government buildings and places," Mehsud added.

He claimed one mujahid (holy fighter) carried out Wednesday''s attack -- first firing on security officials and then blowing up a "red van".

Mehsud claimed a united TTP had a "large number" of suicide bombers in Punjab, Pakistan''s most populous province and the country''s political heartland of which Lahore is the capital.

A website overnight published a purported claim, written in Turkish, from an alleged Taliban splinter group.

The group called "Tehrik-i-Taliban Punjab" claimed responsibility in a statement posted on Turkish jihadi websites through an intermediary organisation, said US specialist group SITE.

But a senior Pakistani security official said investigators believed no such splinter organisation exists.

"It is merely a deception. It is an extension of TTP," the security official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak.

"TTP wants terrorists to strike in Punjab but does not have an organisational structure -- Tehrik-i-Taliban in Punjab. There is no independent group like this," said the security official.