MIRAMSHAH, July 10: Reacting to the reopening of Nato supply routes, a hitherto unknown Taliban faction has said that attacks on Pakistan Army personnel are legitimate.

The group, Idara Pasban-i-Shariat, an offshoot of the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, criticised the political and military leadership for striking a deal with the US, saying the leadership had betrayed the nation by resuming supplies to Nato forces in Afghanistan.

Activists of the group distributed pamphlets in Miramshah bazaar. The pamphlet said the army and the government had been giving an impression for the last few months that relations with the US had been severed.

But now, it said, generals and the political leadership had opened supplies for Nato forces although the US government neither tendered an apology nor stopped drone attacks.