Pakistan bans Taliban after suicide bombings
Pakistan banned the Taliban today after the militants claimed responsibility for one of the country’s worst suicide bombings.
Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik announced the decision 24 hours after rejecting a Taliban ceasefire offer in Bajur, a tribal region along the Afghan border where recent fighting has reportedly killed hundreds and prompted more than 200,000 to flee their homes.
He said the militants were “creating mayhem” in the nuclear-armed nation.
The announcement comes as the US carefully watches whether the ruling coalition will collapse due to internal squabbling between the two main parties since they forced Pervez Musharraf to resign as president. Washington views stability in the Muslim nation as key to winning the war on terror.
Malik said the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, an umbrella militant group, had not been banned before because the provincial government was trying to negotiate with the group.
He noted that despite a peace deal struck with a subset of the group in the Swat Valley, militants kept attacking security forces, burning schools and damaging public buildings.
They also claimed responsibility for a twin suicide bombing that killed 67 people and wounded more than 100 others outside a weapons factory near the capital, Islamabad, on Thursday, calling it revenge for military offensives in Swat, once a tourist destination, and Bajur.
It was the deadliest attack since October, when former prime minister Benazir Bhutto narrowly escaped a double suicide bombing in Karachi that killed about 150 people at a parade welcoming her back from exile. She was killed in a gun and suicide-bomb attack on December 27.
“This organisation is a terrorist organisation and created mayhem against the public life, so we decided to declare it banned,” said Malik.
“Anyone having a link with this organisation, promoting its literature and message, helping it financially or in any other way will be taken to task according to the law.”
Early today, militants used rockets and a bomb to attack the family home of provincial lawmaker Waqar Ahmed Khan in Swat, killing his brother, two nephews and five guards, police and the politician said.
