Ehsanullah_Ehsan_TTP_Spokesman_670
Photo shows Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan.—File Photo

MIRAMSHAH: The Pakistani Taliban, which claimed the 2010 Times Square bomb plot, on Tuesday denied anything to do with explosions that killed three people and wounded more than 100 in Boston.

“We believe in attacking US and its allies but we are not involved in this attack,” Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP.

“We have no connection to this bombing but we will continue to target them wherever possible,” Ehsan added.

Monday's explosions at the Boston Marathon, one of America's top sporting events, forced cities from New York to Los Angeles to go on high alert and conjured up memories of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

An Internet video purportedly from the TTP claimed responsibility for a car bomb attempt in New York's Times Square on May 1, 2010, for which Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad was jailed for life.

A TTP spokesman later denied that the faction had trained or recruited Shahzad.

Shahzad said during his trial that he received bomb-making training during a 40-day stay with the Pakistani Taliban, but that on his return to the United States he planned the bombing and acted alone.

He was also shown in a video embracing Hakimullah Mehsud, commander of the TTP, who has vowed to attack major US cities.

The TTP is based in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt on the Afghan border and has been blamed for some of the deadliest suicide attacks in Pakistan.

US President Barack Obama says it is not yet clear who was behind the blasts. He said the perpetrators would pay. He did not utter the word “terror”.

Opinion

Editorial

Liberties lost
Updated 10 Dec, 2023

Liberties lost

As Pakistan marks Human Rights Day today, it confronts a troubling panorama of human rights violations.
Careless remarks
10 Dec, 2023

Careless remarks

WHAT prompted the caretaker interior minister to sound a public alarm over the country’s political leadership...
Urea shortage
10 Dec, 2023

Urea shortage

IT is the time of the year when urea fertiliser vanishes from the market, and wheat growers are forced to pay a...
Healing old wounds
09 Dec, 2023

Healing old wounds

IN a development that will surely shine a spotlight on one of the darkest chapters in Pakistan’s democracy, the...
New Danish law
09 Dec, 2023

New Danish law

THE public defilement of Islamic sanctities — mainly by Islamophobic provocateurs in the West — serves no...
Elected set-up’s job
09 Dec, 2023

Elected set-up’s job

Backed by a powerful establishment, the interim government has done a fairly good job at executing IMF-mandated policies.