Miranshah : The main spokesman for
Pakistan`s Taliban said Thursday the group neither trained nor
recruited the Pakistani-American charged with terrorism over
an attempted New York bombing.
"We don`t even know him. We did not train him," Azam
Tariq, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman, told two
AFP reporters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
A video allegedly from the TTP claimed responsibility for
the New York car bomb attempt. The credibility of that claim
has been widely questioned.
The Taliban spokesman, whose voice was recognised by both
the AFP reporters familiar with him, congratulated Faisal
Shahzad on the attempted bomb attack, but suggested he may
have been trained by other militant factions.
"The job he has done was a tremendous one and we praised
him for this job but the fact is that we even do not know
Faisal," he said.
"He may be trained by any other militant group," the
spokesman added.
"I deny this claim that Taliban were involved in this
incident. This is a propaganda against us. If we are involved
in something, we admit it."
Despite Tariq`s claim, there are suggestions that TTP,
originally an umbrella of nebulous cells, has become
increasingly fragmented since a major Pakistani military
offensive last year and in the wake of US drone attacks.
PTI
