Lahore:
After claiming responsibility for the brazen Lahore attack, head of the Pakistan Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, has vowed to launch an attack on Washington.
'We did it!' The chilling confession by the Taliban came on Tuesday, a day after the deadly assault on a police academy in Lahore.
"We wholeheartedly accept responsibility for the previous suicide attack on the police station, the attack on Monday in Bannu (a suicide car bombing) and also at the police training centre in Lahore. They have threatened me. I will be lucky if I achieve martyrdom. Soon we will launch an attack in Washington and the White House that will amaze everyone in the world. We will not take revenge against the Americans in Pakistan, we will take revenge in Washington and the White House. You will see, God willing, this becomes reality," he said on phone to the Associated Press.
Mehsud is believed to be based in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan and these attacks pose a major test for the weak, year-old civilian administration of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari that has been gripped with political turmoil in recent weeks.
This threat is in retaliation to Obama's recently announced offensive against afghan and Pakistani militants.
But Mehsud, who has been blamed for Benazir Bhutto's assassination, is not just America's headache. Indian forces are also on high alert at the Wagah border because Mehsud's men - if it was indeed his group - carried out the audacious attack just about 10 kilometres from here.
Mehsud heads the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and is now the most valuable target for the Americans. They have even issued a five million dollar reward for his capture.
The American leadership is concerned about him perhaps because Mehsud recently united different Taliban factions against the US and its allies in South Waziristan. And part of their strategy seems to be to step up attacks in Pakistan.
(With AP inputs)
'We did it!' The chilling confession by the Taliban came on Tuesday, a day after the deadly assault on a police academy in Lahore.
"We wholeheartedly accept responsibility for the previous suicide attack on the police station, the attack on Monday in Bannu (a suicide car bombing) and also at the police training centre in Lahore. They have threatened me. I will be lucky if I achieve martyrdom. Soon we will launch an attack in Washington and the White House that will amaze everyone in the world. We will not take revenge against the Americans in Pakistan, we will take revenge in Washington and the White House. You will see, God willing, this becomes reality," he said on phone to the Associated Press.
Mehsud is believed to be based in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan and these attacks pose a major test for the weak, year-old civilian administration of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari that has been gripped with political turmoil in recent weeks.
This threat is in retaliation to Obama's recently announced offensive against afghan and Pakistani militants.
But Mehsud, who has been blamed for Benazir Bhutto's assassination, is not just America's headache. Indian forces are also on high alert at the Wagah border because Mehsud's men - if it was indeed his group - carried out the audacious attack just about 10 kilometres from here.
Mehsud heads the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and is now the most valuable target for the Americans. They have even issued a five million dollar reward for his capture.
The American leadership is concerned about him perhaps because Mehsud recently united different Taliban factions against the US and its allies in South Waziristan. And part of their strategy seems to be to step up attacks in Pakistan.
(With AP inputs)
