The Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday said it carried out a suicide attack on a UN compound which killed five aid workers and closed UN offices nationwide after the worst attack in Pakistan’s capital in months.
Four Pakistanis and an Iraqi were killed on Monday when a man dressed in military uniform breached strict security measures and detonated explosives in the heavily fortified office of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Islamabad.
Azam Tariq, a spokesperson for the umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement, vowed further onslaughts against foreign and local targets.
”This attack was launched by us — we claim responsibility,” Tariq told Agence France-Presse by telephone from an undisclosed location.
”The WFP is promoting the US agenda. They are silent on massacres and do not comment on killings in Waziristan and other areas,” Tariq said, referring to a lawless northwest tribal district where the United States has launched missile strikes.
”Such types of suicide attacks will continue in future. We will target all people and offices working for American interests. We have sent more suicide bombers in various parts of the country and they have been given targets.”
The bloody strike on a humanitarian target provoked worldwide outrage, and forced the United Nations to close their offices across the country.
”We are assessing the security situation,” said UN spokesperson Ishrat Rizvi. ”Today the offices are closed … we hope that the offices will be open soon.
”The closure of the offices will affect the operations but our effort and intention is to continue our humanitarian assistance,” she told Agence France-Presse.
No decisions had been taken yet over whether to remove any of about 2 000 UN staff working for at least 19 agencies across Pakistan.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik has already blamed the blast on Taliban militants avenging a military push against them in northwest Swat valley, which was launched in late April and has left more than 2 000 militants dead.
He said the attacker managed to navigate the tough security by dressing in a paramilitary uniform and asking to use the toilet.
”I have instructed security officials and conveyed to all checkposts not to allow any person to pass without checking the identity card. Terrorists may use fake official vehicles also to dupe guards,” Malik said on Tuesday.
”Terrorists are doing what a wounded animal would do. They have suffered serious setback. We have taken into custody a lot of their people in Swat.”
Malik repeated government threats that the military was now poised to target the Taliban leadership holed up in the northwest tribal belt along the Afghan border, where Washington alleges al-Qaeda fighters also hide out.
”We will not tolerate a violation of the writ of the government anywhere in the country. The law-enforcing agencies will take necessary action,” he said.
Taliban militants holed up in North and South Waziristan have been blamed for a string of attacks and suicide blasts that have killed more than 2 140 people in the last two years, with 12 blasts hitting Islamabad alone.
Tariq vowed fierce resistance against any offensive aimed at their stronghold. The Taliban have already said they will avenge the death of insurgent commander Baitullah Mehsud, who died in a US missile strike in South Waziristan on August 5.
”Pakistan has been threatening a military operation. We also reserve the right to retaliate. We will give them a befitting response,” Tariq said.
The WFP blast was the deadliest in the capital since April, when eight paramilitary police were killed in a suicide bombing at a tented camp.
Militants have also struck international targets in Islamabad, with 60 people killed in a truck bombing at the five-star Marriott Hotel in September 2008. Six people were killed in a bomb at the Danish embassy in June that year. — AFP
