A new Pakistani Taliban group behind this week’s devastating suicide bombing on the Pakistani-Indian border said on Wednesday the attack was as much aimed at India as Pakistan, suggesting that Indian targets might be next.
At least 59 Pakistanis were killed during a popular flag-lowering ceremony on Sunday when a bomber tried to get as close as possible to the border in a possible attempt to cause casualties on the Indian side as well.
Ehsanullah Ehsan, a prominent militant and spokesman for the group, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat Ahrar (TTP-JA), said he had warned Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that attacks in India were in the pipeline.
“I have already conveyed it to Modi … that if our suicide bombers can carry out attacks on this side of the border, they can easily do it on other side of the border in India,” he told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
“I told him that his hands are red with the blood of Kashmiri mujahideen (fighters) and innocent people of Gujarat for which he would have to pay the price.”
He earlier tweeted in English: “You (Modi) are the killer of hundreds of Muslims. We wl (will) take the revenge of innocent people of Kashmir and Gugrat” (sic). An Indian intelligence official said the account appeared genuine.
Ehsan said however, that the Sunday attack was specifically aimed at the Pakistani military.
“We have proudly stated that our target was the Pakistani security forces and their installations in which we succeeded,” Ehsan boasted to Reuters.
The central Pakistani Taliban group, known as the TTP, has effectively disintegrated this year and split into a range of smaller groups such as TTP-JA who appear to be exploiting their ties to al Qaeda to broaden their mission beyond Pakistan.
