Pakistan bans main Taliban militant outfit

PAKISTAN: Pakistan on Monday banned the main Taliban militant group behind a wave of suicide attacks in the country that has killed hundreds of people since last year, the interior ministry said.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) - an umbrella group for the Taliban Islamist militants who have threatened more suicide attacks - will have its bank accounts and assets frozen.

"We have banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan because of their involvement in a series of suicide attacks," interior ministry chief Rehman Malik told AFP.

The TTP is headed by Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud, based in the lawless South Waziristan tribal district bordering Afghanistan.

The outfit has been blamed for most of the attacks in which nearly 1,200 people have been killed since July last year.

The previous government accused Mehsud of plotting the gun and suicide attack which killed former premier Benazir Bhutto last December but he denied involvement.

Islamabad, Monday, AFP