KARACHI: The government of Pakistan has said that the outlawed Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) has an affiliation with Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a report published on the BBCUrdu website said.

In a letter sent to all provinces, the Interior Ministry said that the banned organisation had sought help from Al Qaeda but upon refusal had formed a nexus with TTP.

The letter states that LJ militants, in an attempt to free their organisation's imprisoned members, may possibly go to the extent of holding ordinary people hostage.

The interior ministry also said that LJ has made a man named Abdul Rehman from Kabirwala, Punjab, in charge of its activities in the province. It added that Rehman has planned various attacks in Lahore and other parts of Punjab.

The letter also mentioned that following a crack down by security forces and personnel from law enforcement agencies against the group, its members had sought help from Al Qaeda. However, Al Qaeda had refused to help LJ due to its engagement in Iraq and Syria.

The interior ministry said that after Al Qaeda's rejection, the group contacted TTP chief Mullah Fazlullah who has promised to provide not only financial support to LJ but had also pledged to lend more support to the banned outfit.

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The letter also state that imambargahs were being targeted in the country to pressurise the government to halt executions of convicts belonging to terrorist organisations.

The government believes that the recent spike in terrorist attacks in the country was the result of the affiliation between LJ and TTP. However, the responsibility of an attack on an imambargah in Peshawar was claimed by TTP with the terrorist group also releasing a video of the attackers.

A number of convicted LJ terrorists have been executed since the government rolled back the moratorium on capital punishment in the aftermath of the Dec 2014 attack on Peshawar's Army Public School.

The Dec 16 attack had resulted in the formulation of a National Action Plan to counter terrorism which also saw a parliamentary consensus on the formation of military courts in the country as well as renewed resolve to counter religious extremism by cracking down on terror financing and regulating madrassahs.

Since the government set the NAP rolling, the country has seen a number of terrorist attacks — the major ones being attacks on imambargahs in Rawalpindi, Shikarpur and Peshawar as well as a recent attack targeted the police in Lahore.

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