The Taliban faction Jamaat-ul-Ahrar has claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack that killed at least 65 people in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Sunday, saying the target of its attack was Muslim Pakistan's small Christian minority.
"The target were Christians," said a spokesman for the faction, Ehsanullah Ehsan. "We want to send this message to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that we have entered Lahore. He can do what he wants but he won't be able to stop us. Our suicide bombers will continue these attacks."
Islamist militants in Pakistan have attacked Christians and other religious minorities often over the past decade. Christians have accused the government of doing little to protect them.