Pakistan Points Finger at TTP in Lahore Attack
Interior Minister Claims Attack Was Planned in South Waziristan
Though as of yet no group has publicly claimed credit for this morning’s attack on a police academy in Lahore, which led to an 8-hour siege and killed 19 people, the Pakistani government has laid the blame squarely on the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claiming that it was part of a campaign to secure the release of those captured after the March 3 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team.
Even beyond the generalized accusations against a group which is distributed across much of Pakistan’s border areas, Interior Minister Rehman Malik claims that the attack was planned in South Waziristan, and cited warnings which claimed that a police station might be hit sometime last week.
Malik added that preliminary investigations had revealed that the gunmen captured this morning was from the Paktika Province of Afghanistan, which borders Waziristan. The other three captured were suspects caught near the attack and are currently being questioned. Nothing more is known about them, though one reportedly had hand grenades on him when he was arrested.