By KUNA,
Islamabad : Hours after the rocket attack on a legislator’s house killed eight persons and a week after twin suicide bombings killed nearly 100 peopl, authorities banned the leading organization of the local Taliban militants.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella group of several Taliban-linked militant organizations, has been declared as a terrorist organization and the Interior Ministry has issued a notification to ban it, said Rehman Malik, security adviser to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. He said that the law-enforcement agencies have been directed to monitor the activities and movements of those people who are linked with the TTP and take action against them as per the law. Also, said Rehman Malik, all accounts and other assets of the organization have been also been frozen. The TTP was created in 2007 and is headed by Taliban Commander Baitullah Mehsud, who is alleged to have masterminded the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, former chairperson of the ruling party Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan’s former Prime Minister, last year.
The group has been blamed to be behind several suicide and bomb attacks, particularly against security forces, in several parts of the country.