Peshawar: Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) tonight blamed the Pakistani military for the assassination of former Pakistani Senator Hidayatullah Khan, saying the “evil” Army carries out such acts to defame the Islamist organization.
“Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has nothing to do with the bomb blasts on former Senator Hidayatullah Khan in Bajaur Agency,” its spokesman Muhammad Khurasani said in a statement.
The statement came as TTP was being blamed for the deadly IED explosion in Damadola Bajaur district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which claimed the lives of Hidayatullah and two others earlier in the day.
Hidayatullah, brother of ex-Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Engineer Shaukatullah Khan, was in Damadola to support his nephew Najibullah’s election campaign in the upcoming by-election on July 11.
“Today, in Damadola area of Bajaur Agency, once again the evil army, continuing the heinous conspiracy to defame the Taliban, blew up the car of former Senator Hidayatullah Khan with a bomb, in which he was killed,” Khurasani said.
“We feel it necessary to clarify once again that our target is only the security agencies and their agents,” he said.
“Killing tribal leaders, clerics and other political members is part of the old traditions of the dirty army to discredit the Taliban,” Khurasani said.
