Next target Pak politicians' kids
After the gruesome killing of children in Peshawar this week, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has warned the Nawaz Sharif government that it will start eliminating children of politicians, including Sharif's family, and army officers if the Pakistan government keeps its commitment to hang militants owing allegiance to the terror outfit.
The warning came in the form of a letter, written apparently by Mohammed Kharasani, believed to be a top commander of Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah. It was received by Pakistan authorities on Friday evening.
Top sources said they were trying to verify if the letter was genuine. The letter justified the killing of young children saying the kids were committed to following in the footsteps of their parents.
The letter says that if any incarcerated terrorist is killed, TTP will take revenge by killing more young children. "Let us make it clear to Pakistan establishment that if any of our associates is harmed, we will avenge ourselves by targeting your children. We would ensure that houses of army generals and political leaders become centers of mourning," said the letter.
"We can create a mourning situation at the homes of many army generals and politicians," Khurassani said in a statement emailed to reporters.
Pakistan hanged two convicted militants Friday in the country's first executions in years, while warplanes and ground forces pounded insurgent hideouts in a northwest region bordering Afghanistan — part of a stepped-up response to the Taliban slaughter of scores of schoolchildren.
Seven people including a policeman and paramilitary soldier were killed in two separate incidents yesterday when Pakistani security forces hit militant hideouts in the restive northwest yesterday morning, officials said.
Dozens of militants have been killed by the army since the Tuesday's massacre.
In the first incident, police and paramilitary soldiers raided suspected hideouts in Shabqadar, a town around 30 kilometres north of Peshawar.
He said two militants belonging to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the militant organisation that carried out Tuesday's massacre at a military-run school in Peshawar -- the deadliest ever attack in Pakistan -- were also killed.
In another incident, five members of the TTP including a local commander were killed.
The army has been waging a major offensive against longstanding Taliban and other militant strongholds in the restive tribal areas on the Afghan border for the last six months.
But a series of fresh strikes after Tuesday's Peshawar attack, which left 149 people dead -- most of them children, suggest the military is stepping up its campaign.
As the Peshawar tragedy unfolded, army chief General Raheel Sharif said the attack had renewed the forces' determination to push for the militants' "final elimination".
Meanwhile, a US drone strike killed at least five militants in Pakistan's restive tribal region near the Afghan border yesterday, security officials said, warning that the death toll was expected to rise.
The strike occurred in North Waziristan, one of the seven semi-autonomous tribal districts bordering Afghanistan, which is seen as a hub for al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
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