Pakistani Taliban threatens to target top leaders of Sharif and Bhutto's parties

The banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Wednesday threatened to target the top leaders of the two major political parties in the ruling coalition if they continued to support tough measures against the militants.

The TTP, which is believed to be close to al-Qaeda, has explicitly warned Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari led Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) - the two major parties of the ruling coalition.

"If these two parties remain firm on their position and continue to be slaves of the army, then action will be taken against their leading people," a statement issued by the militant group said.

The group warned that "people should avoid getting close to such leading people." It claimed that the TTP was only waging what it called "jihad" in Pakistan and "our target is the security agencies occupying the country".

It explicitly warned Foreign Minister Bilawal, whose mother former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was killed allegedly by TTP militants in a terrorist attack in 2007.

"Although Bilawal is still young, this poor man has not yet witnessed the state of war," the statement said, adding that the PPP leader had declared an open war on TTP.

The group also said that it had not taken action against any political party for a long time but "unfortunately…Bilawal Bhutto Zardari gave the US the status of mother to quench the thirst of his mother's love".

The terrorist outfit also said that Prime Minister Sharif had committed the support of his entire party in the war against TTP to please the US.

The TTP spared the religious political parties, saying there is no scope for action against them in TTP's policy. However, it said that "we also request you (religious parties) to refrain from activities against us." The warning comes just days after the civil-military leadership of the country met under the banner of the National Security Committee and vowed to show "zero tolerance" for terrorism in the country.