Jamming cell phones will not stop us: Taliban spokesman

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Undated photo shows Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan.—File Photo

KHYBER AGENCY: A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban has claimed that suspending mobile phone services in the country will not hold back the militant group from carrying out its activities.

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan, speaking on the telephone to a Dawn.com correspondent from an undisclosed location, claimed the banned group does not carry out bombings using cellular phones as detonators.

“We do not carry out bombings through mobile phones,” said the Taliban spokesman.

The militant group’s claim came on a day of cellular service suspension in several parts of the country, with the interior minister announcing services would be blocked again Saturday morning for the next two days after a few hours of restoration Friday midnight.

Pakistani authorities say militants often detonate bombs using cell phones, with Interior Minister Rehman Malik claiming earlier today that 90 per cent of the bombs set off by militants in Pakistan have been detonated using mobile phones.

“The Taliban can not be stopped by jamming mobile phone services. We would achieve our targets in any case,” said Ehsan, accusing Malik of blocking cellular services for “his own personal business interests”.

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