KHAR, Aug 5: Highly-motivated ‘boys and girls’ are eager to mount suicide attacks all over the country, including Karachi, targeting high-profile government functionaries, according to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday in Anayat Kalley, some eight kilometres from the agency headquarters of the Bajaur Agency, the Tehrik’s deputy chief Maulana Faqir Mohammad and spokesman Maulvi Omar said that a ‘Fidayeen Squad’, comprising 10- to 20-year-old boys and girls, was ready to carry out the attacks if the government did not immediately stop the operation in Swat and did not reverse its decision to launch military operation in other tribal areas.

Maulvi Omar said the Tehrik’s chief, Baitullah Mehsud, had held consultations with key Taliban commanders and they were of the opinion that the only way to effectively counter the government’s aggressive plans was to launch massive attacks.

He said a plan had been finalised and the Tehrik had decided to launch suicide attacks in Peshawar, Mardan, Dir and other districts.

The spokesman said Taliban had set up ‘modern anti-aircraft and missile systems’ on their ‘checkposts’ along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to avert any threat of incursion by Nato and Afghan National Army into tribal areas.

He said arrangements had been made to effectively wage a “Jihad against the infidels”.

Asking MQM chief Altaf Hussain to “wind up his group’s activities”, Maulvi Omar said Karachi would soon fall into the hands of Taliban who were awaiting Baithullah’s orders to launch action in the city.

The Taliban spokesman said the Tehrik had responded “positively to the government’s peace overtures”, but both the federal and the NWFP governments had “failed to meet their commitments”. According to him, the present government was pursuing the policies of Pervez Musharraf and trying to complete the “unfinished American agenda”.

Opinion

Editorial

At breaking point
Updated 20 Jan, 2025

At breaking point

The country’s jails serve as monuments to bureaucratic paralysis rather than justice.
Lower growth
20 Jan, 2025

Lower growth

THE IMF has slightly marked down its previous growth forecast for Pakistan’s economy from 3.2pc to 3pc for the...
Nutrition challenge
20 Jan, 2025

Nutrition challenge

WHEN a country’s children go hungry, its future withers. In Pakistan, where over 40pc of children under five are...
Kurram conundrum
Updated 19 Jan, 2025

Kurram conundrum

If terrorists and sectarian groups — regardless of their confessional affiliations — had been neutralised earlier, we would not be at this juncture today.
EV policy
19 Jan, 2025

EV policy

IT is pleasantly surprising that the authorities are moving with such purpose to potentially revolutionise...
Varsity woes
19 Jan, 2025

Varsity woes

GIVEN that most bureaucrats in our country are not really known for contributions to pedagogical excellence, it ...