By IANS,
Islamabad : The Pakistani Taliban based in South Waziristan committed a series of attacks in this country in the past few weeks with the help of its Afghan counterparts, a media report Sunday said.
“Leaders of various militant groups active in Pakistan under the banner of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have succeeded in winning support of the Afghan Taliban for committing terror acts in Pakistan,” The News quoted a source in the security forces as saying.
“They have mounted the deadly attacks in Peshawar, Bannu, Rawalpindi and Lahore with the help of Afghan Taliban,” he added.
The source said the top leaders of outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi have established links with the Afghan Taliban and all its operatives who have been operating in the Punjab have fled South Waziristan or Afghanistan to evade arrest as the law-enforcement agencies have launched a crackdown on such elements in Punjab province.
“Initially, this group was involved in sectarian violence and has been targeting people belonging to a particular religious sect but now it is targeting the security forces,” the source said.
On their part, the security forces late Saturday launched operation Rah-e-Nijat in South Waziristan to eliminate the terrorists from the restive tribal region along the border with Afghanistan.
A majority of the troops participating in the operation have extensive experience of warfare in mountainous terrain and had earlier fought the Taliban in Swat and three other districts of the Malakand division of the North Western Frontier Province that the militants had taken over.
“As directed by the army chief and other commanders involved in the military operation in South Waziristan, the security forces will exercise utmost care to avoid collateral damage during the operation. The commanders are very optimistic about the completion of the operation well before the end of the stipulated time and its positive outcome,” the source said.
South Waziristan is the nerve centre of the TTP and the main source of terrorism across Pakistan. It is from here that TTP supports other terrorist groups operating from the nearby Khyber, Bajaur, Orakzai and Mohmand agencies.
“The root of the terror is in South Waziristan where this group is present. It is a must to root out this terror and curse,” the source said.
After the killing of Baitullah Mahsud in a US drone strike last month, the TTP is being led by Hakimullah Mahsud with the assistance of Waliur Rehman and Qari Hussain, who runs a suicide training camp in the Kotkai area of the region.
The source said that in the last three months, TTP militants had intensified attacks on the security forces deployed in South and North Waziristan and had staged five suicide missions in the Razmak area, kidnapped 15 security personnel and killed three of them and had staged over 300 rocket attacks and 78 improvised explosive device (IED) attacks.
These assaults apart, Pakistan has been in turmoil for the past 10 days with two audacious attacks in Rawalpindi and Lahore and four suicide bombings – three of them in the northwestern city of Peshawar, two of which occurred on successive days – that have claimed 124 lives and injured many more.
On Oct 10, heavily armed Taliban fighters attacked the Pakistan military headquarters in Rawalpindi. The two-day standoff ended with 19 people, including a brigadier and a lieutenant colonel, being killed.
On Thursday, the Taliban laid siege to Lahore city with simultaneous attacks on three police establishments that killed 25 people, including 10 of the attackers. The Taliban claimed responsibility.
Also on Thursday, a suicide bombing claimed 10 lives in the northwestern city of Kohat while an eight-year-old child was killed in a similar attack in Peshawar, a city that is frequented by the Taliban.
On Friday, a suicide bombing in Peshawar claimed 16 lives.
On Oct 9, a suicide bomber detonated a car stuffed with explosives in a busy market in Peshawar, killing 53 people.
“Given all of the recent terrorism acts in various parts of the country, a final showdown against Taliban and their Al Qaeda Uzbek allies in South Waziristan has become an absolute necessity,” the source pointed out.