DERA ISMAIL KHAN, March 1: A faction of the Taliban claimed responsibility on Thursday for the killing of a Chinese woman this week, saying it was in revenge for killing of Muslims in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang.    

The Chinese woman was shot on Tuesday in a Peshawar market along with a Pakistani man. Police at the time said they did not know the motive.

“Our comrades carried out the attack in Peshawar which killed the Chinese tourist,” Mohammed Afridi, a spokesman for the Taliban faction from the Darra Adam Khel area, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

“This was revenge for the Chinese government killing our Muslim brothers in their Xinjiang province.”

Pakistani and Chinese officials have said that militants based in western China have links to the Pakistani Taliban and other militants in northwestern Pakistani regions along the Afghan border.

Beijing accuses one group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, of carrying out attacks in China.—Reuters