Punjabi Taliban pose threat to Pakistan

Punjabi Taliban, an emerging threat to Pakistan, have been witnessed in the shape of recent deadly attacks in Pakistan's second largest city of Lahore, where dozens of people were killed and more than 100 injured.

Local media said that the key suspects in many attacks on security targets in recent months are southern Punjab-based members of four militant groups: Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, Jaish-i- Mohammad, Sipah-i-Sahaba and Harkatul Jihad al-Islami.

Speaking at a special cabinet session to review the law and order situation in the country on Wednesday, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is receiving strength from Punjabi Taliban.

Meanwhile, in recent days, several tones of explosive materials and other weapons favored by terrorists have been found in raids in Lahore.

The suicide bombing, which killed at least 11 people on March 8 in attacks on the office of Pakistan's investigation agency, is believed to have been carried out by the Punjab chapter of the TTP to avenge the killing of Commander Qari Zafar, the acting Amir of the banned group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) in a U.S. drone strike in North Waziristan tribal area in February this year.

Lahore has witnessed a series of attacks since last year. On March 3, 2009, gunmen in Lahore ambushed members of the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team, killing at least eight people. Less than a month later, deadly assault on police training center took place.

Punjab, the most populated one of Pakistan's provinces, has largely escaped the bloodshed plaguing the Pakistan's restive northwest, but since 2007, violence has soared in the province.

Analysts believed that the Punjabi Taliban network is a loose conglomeration of members of banned militant groups of Punjabi origin which has developed strong connections with TTP, Afghan Taliban and other militant groups based in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan.

Saleem Safi, a senior expert on Afghan affairs and Taliban, told Xinhua that Punjabi Taliban exists but their composition is slightly different from other Taliban organizations active in the country and are sectarian in nature.

They have links with the TTP and even some of their members have joined the TTP in tribal belt and holding key positions, he added.

They shuttle between FATA and the rest of Pakistan, providing logistical support to FATA-and-Afghan-based militants to conduct terrorist operations deep inside Pakistan, analysts said.

Between March 2005 and March 2007 alone, about 2,000 militants from southern and northern Punjab Province have reportedly moved to South Waziristan tribal area and started different businesses in an effort to create logistical support networks.

"Punjabi Taliban are involved in the executing of terrorist attacks in Punjab but mainly these attacks are being planned and plotted by the TTP, Al-Qaeda and some times with help of local militant outfits," Safi said.

Safi noted that their motive and cause of struggle is the same as TTP, which is to fight against the U.S. in Afghanistan and to pressurize the Pakistani government to end alliance with the U.S. in the war on terror, adding that they also receive foreign help in their activities against Pakistan.

Mariana Babar, an expert on foreign affairs, said that Punjabi Taliban are active in Southern Punjab but it is not a structured organization but different groups active in the region.

She said they have been blamed for links with Pakistani establishment in the past.

Source: Xinhua