BBC News Page last updated at 08:27 GMT, Tuesday, 31 March 2009 09:27 UK
Lahore 'was Pakistan Taleban op'
The chief of the Pakistani Taleban, Baitullah Mehsud, has told the BBC his group was behind Monday's deadly attack on a police academy in Lahore.
He said the attack was "in retaliation for the continued drone strikes by the US in collaboration with Pakistan on our people".
He also claimed responsibility for two other recent deadly attacks.
Baitullah Mehsud said the attacks would continue "until the Pakistan government stops supporting the Americans".
Security officials are interrogating at least four suspects captured after the attack, police say.
Eighteen people, including two civilians, eight policemen and eight militants, were killed and 95 people injured during the eight-hour battle to wrest back control of the academy, the interior ministry says.
Pakistan's interior minister earlier identified the Taleban as well as other extremist groups as possible perpetrators, and suggested a foreign state could also be involved.
'Retaliation'
Baitullah Mehsud is the supreme commander of the Tehrik-e-Taleban Pakistan group(Movement of Taleban in Pakistan).
He operates out of a stronghold in the Pakistani tribal region of South Waziristan, and the US state department recently issued a $5m (£3.5m) reward for his capture.
Speaking to the BBC by phone, he also claimed responsibility for two other attacks:
* A suicide attack on a security convoy, also on Monday, near the town of Bannu in North West Frontier Province, which killed seven security personnel
* An attack on the offices of a police station in Islamabad on 25 March
But he denied responsibility for the bombing of a mosque in north-west Pakistan on 27 March, in which at least 50 people died.
Baitullah Mehsud warned the attacks would continue as long as Pakistan continued "supporting the Americans".
Such attacks are indeed expected to increase in line with the newly announced US strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, says the BBC's Barbara Plett in Lahore.
Different Taleban factions in the border region, including Baitullah Mehsud's, have joined forces in readiness to confront the planned American troop increase in Afghanistan, she says.
Meanwhile, as the Pakistan government attempts to build a national consensus to fight the Taleban, it is faced with trying to overcome the deep opposition among its people to an American role in that struggle.
Pakistan's 'choice'
Earlier on Tuesday, Pakistan's interior minister urged the country to unite against insurgents after the attack on the police academy in Lahore.
Rehman Malik said the country had a choice between letting the Taleban take over and uniting to fight them - adding that Pakistan's integrity was "in danger".
He told reporters that the militants were believed to be fighters loyal to Mehsud, and included an Afghan national.
The minister also suggested that a foreign country was interfering in Pakistan's domestic affairs.
"Some rival country, or some hostile [intelligence] agency is definitely out to destabilise our democratic forces," he said, in a possible reference to Pakistan's long-time foe, India.
Indian officials have condemned the attack on Lahore.
Carnage
Gunmen seized the Manawan police training school on the outskirts of the city during a morning drill on Monday.
Helicopter gunships backed up troops who confronted the grenade-throwing militants. Some of the militants are believed to have blown themselves up with suicide vests.
Our correspondent, who witnessed the aftermath, saw broken glass, bullet casings and body parts scattered over the floor of the academy.
The attack came days after US President Barack Obama pledged to put Pakistan, along with Afghanistan, at the heart of his fight against al-Qaeda militants.
He said "al-Qaeda and its extremist allies" were "a cancer that risks killing Pakistan from within".
US officials have pledged to help Pakistan target so-called "safe havens" for militants in Pakistan's north-west tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
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