Taliban Revenge Attack

After Baitullah Mehsud, former leader of the Pakistani Taliban, was killed by a US drone earlier this month the Whitehouse spokesman Robert Gibbs made the claim that Mehsud’s death would make Pakistan safer.

In my previous post about this story I made clear that his death would not make Pakistan safer and that Pakistanis would be expecting retaliation in the form of a suicide attack. Safety has not come, but a suicide bomber has.

A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack at a security post near the Afghan border just before policeman were about to break their fast (the month of Ramadan having begun). So far 22 people have lost their lives.

‘This is our first response since the death of our chief Baitullah Mehsud,’ Azam Tariq told AFP. ‘We will continue similar attacks in the future also.’ He said ‘the victims of the suicide attack were all those supporting the United States. Anybody supporting the US is our enemy.

The views expressed by the author are personal.