TTP splinter faction, Ahrar-ul-Hind claims staged Islamabad attack

ISLAMABAD: An extremist militant outfit, Ahrah-ul-Hind has claimed the responsibility for the deadly attack on Islamabad Session Court, which killed no less than 11 people, including a judge Monday morning.

Asad Mansoor, a spokesman for Ahrar-ul-Hind (AH), which recently split from the main Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) umbrella group, telephoned Geo News to take the credit for the attack.

"We claim responsibility for the attack, we are an independent group and have no links with TTP," he told Geo News.

"We were a part of TTP earlier but now we operate independently."
On the other hand, TTP took no time in distancing itself from Monday’s bloodshed, which comes two days after the outlawed terrorist group unilaterally declared a one-month ceasefire to allow peace talks with the government to resume.

The main TTP spokesman, Shahidullah Shahid said the group was committed to the ceasefire and would stick to it "strictly".

Reciprocating this gesture, the government late on Sunday announced a halt to its air strikes on the suspected militant hideouts in the North Waziristan Agency.

Eleven people including a judge were killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack on a session court complex in Islamabad, a rare strike at the heart of the heavily guarded.