TTP Denies Responsibility for Hotel Suicide Bombing With Chinese Ambassador As Probable Target

The group has been held responsible for around 1,800 terrorist attacks in Pakistan over the past decade. A UN Security Council report last month claimed that at present it makes up the “largest component” of foreign terrorist fighters in Afghanistan.

The head of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)*, Noor Wali Mehsud, has denied any responsibility for the deadly suicide bombing at a hotel in Quetta last April, alleging that the attack was carried out by Pakistani agencies to "discredit" the group.

The bombing, which left five people dead, rocked Quetta's Serena Hotel as it was hosting a Chinese delegation headed by the Chinese Ambassador Nong Rong in April last year.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin later confirmed that the Chinese envoy and his delegation were staying at the same hotel but they were not on the premises when the blast went off.

Scores of media reports claimed at the time that the attack was carried out by TTP.

“Our war is with the Pakistani security forces and this is our clear policy. However, by conducting such operations through its intelligence agencies, the government of China wants to use Pakistan for its own interests, just like it used America,” Mehsud claimed in a video released through the group’s own channel, Umar Media, on Wednesday.

Pakistan also blamed India for supporting the TTP, an allegation that New Delhi rejects.

Before the Quetta attack, the previous Pakistani government under Imran Khan even approached the United Nations (UN), claiming that it had “irrefutable evidence” that New Delhi was running terrorist camps in Afghanistan.

“Pakistan's evidence gives concrete proof that India is providing financial and material sponsorship to a number of terrorist organizations, including UN-designated terrorist organizations Jamaat ul Ahrar, Balochistan Liberation Army and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan,” former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said at a press conference in November 2020.

The allegation was made before the Taliban* came to power in Afghanistan last August.

In the video published on Friday, the TTP chief, however, rejected the claim that India was providing support.

“The TTP is an independent and sovereign movement which is not under the influence of any external power. But the Pakistani Army has always played the role of a hitman and a frontman ally of America and the entire history of Pakistan is testimony to the fact,” Mehsud said.

TTP Warns of More Attacks if Peace Talks Fail

Mehsud warned that the group would continue its “jihad” in full swing if the peace talks at present with the Pakistani authorities didn’t succeed.

The group increased the frequency of its attacks in 2021, coinciding with the Taliban’s operations which led to the takeover of Kabul.

According to a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) report last year, the TTP allegedly supported the Afghan Taliban in “military operations” against the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) during the US occupation of Afghanistan.

A short-lived truce between the TTP and former government of Imran Khan in Pakistan was reportedly arranged by Taliban's Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani last November.

“The negotiations are underway under the mediation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) - the IEA is not just the facilitator or host. No significant progress has been made,” Mehsud said.

Peace talks broke down later, with several Pakistani troops killed in terrorist attacks claimed by the group in May, according to the Pakistani Armed Forces' media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

Now, the ceasefire is back in place as the two sides negotiate a peaceful settlement.

Mehsud said that the group wouldn’t compromise on its main demand, which was the secession of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) from the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The FATA, previously a tribal semi-autonomous region, was merged into the Pakistani province in 2018.

He said that Islamabad had yet to release the group’s fighters held in Pakistani jails, another demand of the banned terror organization.

Mehsud said the group didn't mind whether negotiations were carried out by the Army or the Parliament, claiming that "the Army is the real ruler in Pakistan".

Although Pakistan has been one of the strongest backers of the Taliban since it stormed back to power in Kabul last August, Islamabad has also consistently reminded the Islamist group several times that it shouldn’t let the Afghan territory be used by terrorist organizations to target a third country.

The Taliban gave its commitment in writing during the Doha Agreement of February 2020 that it won't allow its territory to be used by terrorists.

* TTP is a terrorist organization outlawed in Russia
*The Taliban is listed as a terrorist organization by the United Nations in UNSCR 1267