Pak Taliban threatens to continue attacks on security forces

Taliban militants based in Afghanistan have threatened to continue attacks on Pakistani security forces and government installations from sanctuaries in Kunar and Nuristan provinces, according to a media report on Friday.

"We don't care if the (Hamid) Karzai government or North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces decide to launch an operation against us in Kunar and Nuristan as this region has never been in control of the Afghan government and foreign forces," said Sairajuddin Ahmed, spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban led by Mullah Fazlullah.

"We are very much in control of the two provinces and face no problems from local forces while carrying out attacks in Pakistan," Ahmed was quoted as saying by The News daily.

Fazlullah escaped to Afghanistan with scores of his fighters when the Pakistan Army launched an operation against the Pakistani Taliban in Swat Valley, located 160 km from Islamabad in early 2009.

Fazlullah's fighters have been blamed for a string of recent cross-border attacks in Pakistan.

Ahmed said the militants knew that Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf had visited Afghanistan on Thursday to pressure the government of President Hamid Karzai and to request NATO commanders to launch operations against the Pakistani Taliban in Kunar and Nuristan.

"No one can stop us from our attacks in Pakistan, (not) even the Karzai regime and foreign forces. They, in the past, had used enough force but failed to secure control of the region. They can't capture this region from us now," Ahmed said.

Ahmed claimed that the Taliban would also launch attacks in the Swat Valley, which has been largely peaceful since an operation by the military to flush out the militants.