Pakistani Taliban, TTP, Claim Rawal Pindi Mosque Attacks

The TTP have claimed repsonsibility for the Rawal Pindi mosque attacks by email CNN said.

"We reconfirmed it, that the TTP has done it, and will do more which are already planned," the group said.

"We once again mention that we are not against the innocent people and the state of Pakistan but we against those officers and ministers who are American by hearts and minds and Pakistani just by faces," the e-mail message said.

CNN said "The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan took responsibility for the action on Friday but reiterated its claim in an e-mail to CNN on Saturday because media outlets quoted analysts and some officials who doubted the group's participation."

Hakimullah's Deputy,Waliur Rehman Mehsud, told the BBC separately, according to The Hindu,

the Taliban’s primary target was the Pakistan Army, and they would continue to carry out such attacks. The civilians killed in the attack, including the 17 children and aged people, he said, were family members of army officials, and therefore their deaths “did not matter”.

The News stated,

PESHAWAR: The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) once again followed its selective policy of claiming responsibility for terrorist attacks on security forces installations and denying those targetting public places when it claimed having attacked the Parade Lane Mosque in Rawalpindi on Friday.

Waliur Rahman, the TTP commander of South Waziristan, phoned a BBC reporter late Friday to claim responsibility for the mosque attack in which up to 40 worshippers including senior army officers were killed. He said the attack was launched because this was a military area.

Normally Waliur Rahman doesn’t interact much with the media. Azam Tariq and occasionally Hakimullah Mahsud and Qari Hussain contact journalists to provide their version of events. But it seems Waliur Rahman wanted to claim credit for the Rawalpindi mosque attack as it killed a number of serving army personnel and enabled him to claim revenge for the military operation in South Waziristan.