Islamabad, Oct 16 (IANS) The Taliban, which has staged two audacious attacks in Pakistan in five days, has said it will turn its guns on India after turning this country into an Islamic state.
“We want an Islamic state. If we get that (in Pakistan), the we will go to the borders of India,” TV footage aired Friday showed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Kakimullah Mehsud as saying at an unspecified location, most probably in the South Waziristan region along the border with Afghanistan where the militants have their strongholds.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Pakistani military headquarters and on three police establishments in Lahore, saying it was opposed to Islamabad’s role in the US-led war against terror.

“We are fighting the Pakistani military, police and militia because they are following American orders. If they stop following their orders, we will stop fighting them,” Mehsud said.

On Thursday, the Taliban laid siege to Lahore city with simultaneous attacks on three police establishments that killed 25 people, including 10 of the attackers.

On Oct 10, terrorists had attacked the Pakistan military headquarters in Rawalpindi. The two-day standoff ended with 19 people, including a brigadier and a lieutenant colonel, being killed.

This apart, there have been three suicide bombings in the northwestern city of Peshawar, a bustling city where Taliban fighters are known to take refuge, in a week, killing 64 people.

Ten people died when a suicide bomber exploded close to a police station in Peshawar Friday. An official said that 10 people were killed in the explosion at the Cantonment Area and that two of the injured were in critical condition.

On Thursday, an eight-year-old child was killed and nine people were injured in a car bomb attack in Peshawar.

On Oct 9, a suicide bomber detonated a car stuffed with explosives in a busy market in Peshawar, killing 53 people and injuring over 100.

Peshawar is the capital of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), four districts of which had been completely overrun by the Taliban. The Pakistani Army launched a major operation against the militants April 26 and managed to wrest control of the Swat, Buner, Lower Dir and Upper Dir after intense fighting that lasted almost five months.

The Pakistani Army says more than 1,500 militants were killed in the fighting.

With the NWFP operation now over, the Pakistani Army is now preparing to move against Taliban strongholds in South Waziristan.

Kakimullah Mehsud had succeeded Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a US drone strike in South Waziristan last month. Many believe that Baitullah Mehsud had a hand in killing of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto in a gun and bomb attack as she left a political rally in Rawalpindi Dec 27, 2007.