TTP attacks Pakistan from ‘within its territory’, says the group’s leader

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief stated that the group is fighting Pakistan from within the country’s territory, “using Pakistani soil.”

“We have the ability to fight for many more decades with the weapons and spirit of liberation that exist on the soil of Pakistan,” Noor Wali Mehsud told CNN in an interview.

A months-long ceasefire with Islamabad was broken by TTP late last month and its fighters were ordered to resume attacks across the country.

However, the prospect of increased violence in Pakistan with the termination of the truce may also result in an uptick in tensions between the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan, CNN reported.

But Mehsud said the group was not getting any help from the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) and said: “When we don’t need any help from the Afghan Taliban, what is the point of hiding it.”

This comes after Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari warned against cross-border terrorism on Friday, saying that his country reserved the right to take direct action against the TTP or other militant groups.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Ali Saif, spokesperson for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government said Monday that talks between Pakistani officials and the TTP are underway in Afghansitan following the attack on the Counter-Terrorism Dept’s (CTD) compound in Bannu.

Pakistani authorities opened talks to try to resolve a stand-off with the TTP who were holding several security personnel hostage after seizing control of a counter-terrorism facility in the country’s northwest a day earlier.