ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Interior Rana Sanaullah said on Thursday the government was capable of “fully” controlling militancy in the country a day after the Pakistan Taliban (TTP) claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in the southwestern city of Quetta.
A suicide bomber blew himself up near a truck carrying police officers on their way to protect polio workers near Quetta on Wednesday, killing a police officer and three civilians from the same family who were traveling nearby in a car. The bombing also wounded over 20 others, mostly policemen, officials said.
The attack came a day after Pakistani Deputy Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khan was in Kabul for discussions with the Afghan Taliban, including on the latest threat from the TTP. Islamabad has been pushing Afghanistan’s Taliban government not to allow the TTP to use their soil to launch attacks inside Pakistan.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the interior minister called terror activities by the TTP ‘dangerous’ for peace and stability in the entire region, saying the Afghan Taliban should also be concerned about this.
“I assure the nation that we will fully control terrorism in the country. The TTP has accepted the responsibility of carrying out the attack in Quetta which is an alarming as well as a condemnable matter,” he said. “The TTP has access to all sorts of facilities in Afghanistan, so it should be a matter of concern for the government there.”
He said the TTP should not be seen as an “out-of-control” force but warned the provincial governments and law and enforcement agencies in the Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provinces where most attacks take place to take the matter seriously.
“I assure the provinces that full support will be provided by the federation. Political differences exist but the state comes first,” the minister said.
Wednesday’s bombing happened two days after The Pakistani Taliban ended a monthslong cease-fire with the government in Islamabad, ordering its fighters to resume attacks across the country, where scores of deadly attacks have been blamed on the insurgent group. In Monday’s statement, the outlawed TTP group said it was ending the five-month cease-fire after the army stepped up operations against the TTP.
Pakistan and the TTP had agreed to an indefinite cease-fire in May after talks in Afghanistan’s capital.
