'Our Hearts bursting
With Pain' Over Taliban's Peshawar Attack, Says Al Qaeda
PESHAWAR: The local branch of Al-Qaeda in Pakistan's Peshawar
said on Sunday its heart was "bursting with pain" over the Taliban's
massacre at a Pakistan school and urged the militants to target only security
forces. (Pakistan Executes Two Terrorists
After Lifting Moratorium on Death Penalty)
Last week's attack
killed 149 people -- most of them children of the local army personnel. The
Taliban claimed it was a revenge for the army action against its
families.
"Our hearts are
bursting with pain and grief over this incident," Osama Mehmood, spokesman
for Al-Qaeda's South Asia chapter, said in a four-page statement e-mailed to
the media.
Pakistan has
described the bloody rampage as its own "mini 9/11", saying it was a
game changer in its fight against terror. The outrage has apparently eroded the
sympathy for militants in a country where many people have long been suspicious
of the US-led "war on terror". There is pressure on the army to
intensify the offensive launched this year on terror havens along the Afghan
border. (Pakistan:
59 Militants Killed After School Massacre)
In September,
Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri had announced the creation of the new South
Asia chapter in September to "wage jihad" in Myanmar, Bangladesh and
India.
"There is no
doubt that the list of crimes and atrocities of the Pakistani army has crossed
the limit and it is true that this army is ahead of everyone in America's
slavery and genocide of Muslims... but it does not mean that we should seek
revenge from oppressed Muslims," Mehmood today said. (Pakistan
Army Chief Signs Death Warrants for Six Militants)
"The guns that
we have taken up against Allah's enemy America and its pet rulers and slave
army should not be aimed towards children, women and our Muslim people,"
he added.
The Afghan Taliban,
who are loosely affiliated with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, have also condemned
the attack, saying killing innocent children was against Islam. (Peshawar
Attack Not Taliban's First on a School)
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