Taliban threatens to carry out more attacks on educational institutes of Pakistan rather than on Army, Parliament or government departments

Taliban threatens to carry out more attacks on educational institutes of Pakistan rather than on Army, Parliament or government departments

Shiite News:  A senior Pakistani Taliban commander Umar Mansoor released a video warning Islamabad of more terrorist attacks on schools and colleges.  He clearly said in the video “now we will not kill the soldier in his cantonment, the lawyer in the court or the politician in parliament but in the places where they are prepared, the schools, the universities, the colleges that lay their foundation,” a bearded Mansoor said in the video, holding an admonishing finger aloft with some other terrorists around him three of which were covering their faces.

The video footage pointed to a possible split in the fractured Taliban leadership.

While Taliban’s official spokesman Mohammad Khorasani had denied the group’s role hours after the attack on the university and declared such attacks as un-Islamic.

However, the commander of its faction Umar Mansoor told Reuters that his fighters had targeted the campus because it prepared students to join the government and army. Mansoor is considered close to Mullah Fazlullah, the embattled leader of the fractious Pakistan Taliban group.

The reason for the conflicting claims by the official spokesman and Mansoor was not immediately clear but has led to speculation of a possible split in the Taliban leadership.

“With the mercy of god, our attacks on all universities and schools will continue,” Umar Manssor said.

The video also shows four attackers, two of them in their mid-teens, practicing shooting as part of their training before carrying out the Charsadah attack.

Pakistan has killed and arrested hundreds of suspected militants under a major crackdown launched after Taliban gunmen massacred 134 children at APS Peshawar in December 2014.