Pakistan Taliban claim responsibility for Karachi attack

Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for the Monday's suicide attack on a procession of Shiite Muslims in Karachi which killed 43 persons and injured 90 others, local TV channels reported.

Taliban commander Asmatullah Shaheen said that one Taliban activist Husnain Muaveya carried out the attack.

Shaheen said the bomber arrived in the south port city of Karachi a day earlier of the attack and he targeted the same place which was assigned to him.

He said that Taliban leaders Hakimullah Mehsood and Qari Hussain had assigned the task to his group and that is why he is claiming responsibility for the attack.

Asmatullah Shaheen had been associated with the splinter Taliban group headed by slain leader Abdullah Mehsood but later hejoined Baitullah Mehsood group. He was appointed chief of Jandola area in South Waziristan and has been in hiding since the forces launched operation in the region in October.

Pakistani authorities had arrested him after Abdullah Mehsood kidnapped Chinese engineers in South Waziristan but he was freed later. Abdullah Mehsood was killed by the security forces in Balochistan in 2007.

Pakistani Taliban had also targetted Shia Muslims in the past.

Source: Xinhua