TALIBAN IN PAKISTAN DENIES INVOLVEMENT IN BOSTON MARATHON BLASTS
Islamabad, 8 Jumadil Akhir 1434/17 April 2013 (MINA) – The Pakistani Taliban group — Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Tuesday (16/4) denied its involvement in Boston Marathon bombings that killed at least three people and injured over 100 others, according Khaama Press report monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).
TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan quoted by a France news agency said, “We believe in attacking US and its allies but we are not involved in this attack.”
Ehsan further added, “We have no connection to this bombing but we will continue to target them wherever possible.”
TTP claimed responsibility behind Times Square bombing plot back in 2010 where the bombing plotter, a Pakistani-American citizen Faisal Shahzad was jailed for life.
However a TTP spokesman later denied that the faction had trained or recruited Shahzad.
The explosion in Boston Marathon finish line on Monday afternoon orced cities from New York to Los Angeles to go on high alert.
TTP based in northwestern Pakistan tribal belt on the Afgahn border is accused for some of the deadliest attacks in Pakistan.
No group has so far claimed responsibility behind the attack in Boston Marathon however US president Barack Obama without uttering the word “terror” said that the perpetrators would pay.
Observer analysis
Max Abrahms, a terrorism expert at Johns Hopkins university in Baltimore, has speculated the explosions could be the work of foreign or domestic terrorists, Channel4 reported.
Speaking to Sky News he claimed al-Qaeda has become decentralised after suffering years of US attrition, meaning it could be behind small attacks.
He also raised the prospect of right-wing groups like those led by Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, noting it is the 20th anniversary of the end of the Waco siege, in which 76 people died.
“I think it is either an al-Qaeda-affiliated group or a right-wing extremist group.”
Richard Barrett, the former United Nations co-ordinator for the al-Qaeda and Taliban monitoring team, said it was too early to say who was to blame for the marathon blasts, but said the timing of the attack on Patriots’ Day and the relatively small size of the devices suggested the work of a domestic extremist.
Barrett, now senior director at the Qatar International Academy for Security Studies, said: “At the moment it looks more likely that it was a right-wing terrorist incident, rather than an al-Qaeda attack because of the size of the devices.
“This happened on Patriots’ Day, it is also the day Americans are supposed to have their taxes in, and Boston is quite a symbolic city. These are all little indicators.”
Barrett said the number of right-wing extremist incidents in the US has grown since the September 11 attacks. (T/P09/E1)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).
