Pakistan Taliban, region under scrutiny after massacre

LAHORE, Pakistan - Militants who attacked a minority sect, killing 93 people in the country's east, belonged to the Pakistani Taliban and were trained in a lawless border region where the United States wants Islamabad to mount an army operation, police said yesterday.

Pakistan has resisted rooting out various extremist groups in North Waziristan, in part because it says its army is stretched thin in operations elsewhere.

Local TV channels have reported the Pakistani Taliban, or an affiliate, had claimed responsibility for Friday's attacks in Pakistan's second-largest city.

Senior police officer Akram Naeem in Lahore said the interrogation of one of the arrested suspects revealed the gunmen were involved with the Pakistani Taliban. The 17-year-old suspect told police the attackers had trained in the North Waziristan tribal region.

"Our initial investigation has found that they all belong to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan," or Pakistani Taliban movement, Naeem said. He said the suspect, "Abdullah alias Mohammad, was given terrorism training in Miran Shah" - the main city in North Waziristan.

North Waziristan has long been filled with militants focused on battling U.S. and NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban began arriving after army operations against them in other regions.

Before the Pakistani Taliban began operating in North Waziristan, Islamabad was believed to want to avoid taking on the area because the militant networks there were not threatening targets inside the country. Critics also suspect Pakistan wants to maintain good relations with some of those Afghan-focused militant networks so it will have allies in Afghanistan once the United States leaves the region.

Pakistan's army chief spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, declined to comment yesterday. Friday's attacks targeted the Ahmadi sect, a minority reviled by mainstream Muslims.

Two teams of gunmen, including some in suicide vests, stormed two mosques and sprayed bullets at worshipers while holding off police.