Taliban denies Peshawar blast role

October 29, 2009 by Infowars Ireland

The blast killed many women and children as they shopped in the busy Mina Bazaar

english.aljazeera.net

The Taliban and al-Qaeda have distanced themselves from Wednesday’s deadly market blast in Peshawar that claimed 105 lives, saying “their main targets are the security forces, and not innocent civilians”.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), in a statement sent to the media on Thursday, condemned the car bomb attack that tore through a crowded market and denied any involvement in the explosion.

However, Pakistani government officials have said the attack was in revenge for the army’s offensive against Taliban fighters in South Waziristan, and that the military campaign would go on.

The attack on the busy Mina Bazaar, which also injured more than 200 people, was the deadliest to hit Pakistan this year.

Many of those killed were women and children and on Thursday, residents of the troubled city began burying the dead.

‘Rogue elements’

Lieutenant-General Asad Durrani, the former head of Pakistan’s Inter Service Intelligence (ISI), told Al Jazeera the current situation in the country was grim and that it could take years for the situation to be brought under control.

“American help in our efforts of counter- insurgency are very unhelpful because this alliance is a very unpopular one. The public are not in favour of America and Pakistan co-ordinating…”

Durrani said that rising civilian casualties were also eroding the support for the anti-government groups.

“The most dangerous category of groups are the so-called rogue elements, their agenda is neither Afghanistan-oriented nor Pakistan. They carry out certain acts and atrocities which makes the situation even more complex,” he said.

Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan’s high commissioner to the UK, told Al Jazeera: “The Taliban are losing the war, losing history. And while doing that they will kill as many as they would like to.

“But I can tell you, as our foreign minister said, we’ll not buckle down. We fight them and we’ll destroy them.”
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