MIRAMSHAH: The Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday denied any involvement in Monday’s explosions occurred at the Boston Marathon, one of America’s top sporting events, that left three people dead and over one hundred wounded.
“We believe in attacking US and its allies but we are not involved in this attack,” Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told media. “We have no connection to this bombing but we will continue to target them wherever possible,” Ehsan added.
The Pakistani Taliban purportedly in an Internet video claimed responsibility for a car bomb attempt in New York’s Times Square on May 1, 2010, for which Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad was jailed for life. However, a TTP spokesman later denied that the faction had trained or recruited Shahzad.
Shahzad said during his trial that he received bomb-making training during a 40-day stay with the Pakistani Taliban, but that on his return to the United States he planned the bombing and acted alone.
He was also shown in a video embracing Hakimullah Mehsud, commander of the TTP, who has vowed to attack major US cities.
US President Barack Obama has said that it is not yet clear who was behind the blasts which forced cities from New York to Los Angeles to go on high alert and conjured up memories of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Obama said the perpetrators would pay. He did not utter the word “terror”.
DND
