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Pak Punjab terror groups bigger 'Frankensteins' than Taliban: Report |
While the Pakistan Army has launched a major offensive
in South Waziristan, the Taliban's stronghold, the recent spate of terror attacks
across the Punjab province has raised concerns over the banned outfit's fast expanding
network in the province bordering India. It is feared that following the military's
all out offensive in Waziristan, Punjabi Taliban will flee the tribal region and
return to their home province, which would deteriorate the condition further in
the country's most populous province. "We have found through our intelligence
sources that among the Pakistani Taliban the highest number is of Punjabi Taliban
and obviously they would come under intense pressure from the security forces
offensive forcing them to return to the Punjab," The Washington Times quoted a
senior government official of South Waziristan, as saying. Experts believe that
several extremist leaders received military training in Punjab, home to the political
and military elite, which has made them far more lethal than the ethnic Pashtun
fighters, the report said. Analysts believe that the Punjabi extremists, once
nurtured by the state itself, have now grown into a Frankenstein and have joined
hands with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda with the sole aim to spread the reign of terror
and an intolerant strain of Islam in the country. "They are more hard-line, more
fundamentalist and more connected to a global agenda," said Imtiaz Ali, a fellow
at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington. While Punjab governor, Salman Taseer
has vehemently denied the presence of any terror training camps inside his province,
there is specific information that banned terror groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba
(LeT), the group behind the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, have been operating
in Punjab since long. The LeT has a camp in Muridke near Lahore. There have also
been reports of militant camps in Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan districts of
Punjab, the report added. An unheard Taliban group, 'Amjad Farooqi', claimed responsibility
for the audacious terror attack on the Army General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi
and the attacks on three different security installations in Lahore, which clearly
highlights the expanding network and the increasing clout of the Punjabi terror
groups. The expanding terror network in Punjab has caused concerns in India as
well, it went on to add. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief, Hakimullah
Mehsud, has already announced that the Taliban would turn its focus on India once
it creates 'an Islamic state in Pakistan." |
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