[Times Of India.India Times] The Pak Taliban on Thursday pledged to attack Indian targets "anywhere" to avenge the execution of Ajmal Kasab, the lone survivor of the terrorist squad responsible for the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, and demanded that Kasab's body be returned to Pakistain for an "Islamic burial". Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain front man Ehsanullah Ehsan said the TTP will conduct various attacks in India and anywhere to avenge the hanging of Kasab, without elaborating any further. The TTP, closely linked to al Qaeda, operates from Pakistain's ungoverned tribal belt along the country's border with Afghanistan.
"TTP demands that Kasab's body be returned to Pakistain for an Islamic burial," Ehsan said. "If they don't return his body to us or his family, we will capture Indians and not return their bodies," he warned. The Taliban will try to strike Indian targets anywhere, he added.
He also criticized the Pakistain government for failing to ask India to return Kasab's body after Indian authorities said Wednesday that Kasab was buried in the surrounding area of the jail in Pune where he was hanged. Indian authorities did not specify what burial rites were performed.
After Delhi requested for extra protection for its diplomats in Pakistain following the execution, Pakistain tightened security at the Indian embassy in Islamabad. Indian deputy high commissioner Gopal Baglay met his counterpart in the Pakistain foreign office Zohra Akbari, DG, South Asia, a day before Kasab's hanging, and handed a 'note verbale' requesting extra security cover.
Diplomatic sources in Islamabad confirmed that security measures at the Indian High Commission, which are already very extensive, were further tightened.
Pakistain foreign secretary Jalil Abbas Jillani told news hounds, "I am not aware of the threats that you are referring to, but as far as we are concerned, our position on the issue of terrorism has been consistent - we have condemned terrorism in Pakistain or in any part of the world as something that is unacceptable."
"As far as the question of security is concerned, the government of Pakistain is doing everything despite all the challenges to provide security not only to our own people but also members of the diplomatic community," he added, on the eve of a summit of developing countries being hosted in Islamabad.