ISLAMABAD
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the blast that killed 13 policemen and injured 36 outside a police training center in Karachi on Thursday morning.
TTP spokesperson Shahidullah Shahid told local GEO TV that the attack was in retaliation to the alleged targeted killing of Taliban militants in parts of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (KP) province that touches neighboring Afghanistan, in recent days.
“We are not fighting a defensive war. We will continue until we reach on a ceasefire with the government,” Shahid said. “Security forces are silently abducting and killing our members. We cannot sit idle on that.”
Meanwhile, Professor Ibrahim Khan, a member of a three-member Taliban committee that is negotiating with government-appointed team to end the decade-long militancy in the country, admits that the fresh attack has left the Taliban negotiators in a “difficult position”.
“We will ask Taliban why they conducted this attack despite firm assurances,” Professor Ibrahim, a former senator and KP Chief of Jamaat-e-Islamim, told reporters.
“Both sides should desist from such activities which can jeopardize the peace process,” he said.
He vowed that the negotiating committee would continue its efforts to broker a peace deal.
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