ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pro-Taliban Pakistani militants are trying to create a sectarian rift, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Saturday, as a new wave of violence piled pressure on a government already struggling with a flood crisis.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for bomb attacks on two Shia rallies that killed 33 people in Lahore on Wednesday and 65 in the city of Quetta on Friday.
The attacks ended a lull after devastating floods which affected 20 million people. Pakistani officials had said before the attacks that any major violence at such a difficult time was likely to cause deep popular resentment against the militants.
On Friday, the Taliban also threatened to launch attacks in the United States and Europe ""very soon,"" two days after the Washington added the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to its list of ""foreign terrorist organizations.""
Malik said al-Qaeda linked militants were trying to whip up sectarianism after taking a beating in their strongholds in the country's northwest in a string of military offensives.
""Sectarianism that has been there for 62 years (since the creation of Pakistan), they stoked it again,"" he told reporters in Islamabad.
Warning that militants would launch attacks again ""wherever there is a vulnerable situation"" he said ""they are using it as a weapon to terrorize people.""
In Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, shops shut as the city went into mourning. People said they were in despair over the many problems facing Pakistan.
""On the one hand, poor people have been stricken by the floods, and on the other hand we are having these blasts. All businesses are finished. What is going to become of this country?"" said Haji Abdul Baqi, a rickshaw driver in Quetta.
Malik said the TTP, al Qaeda and the Sunni Muslim Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), one of the most violent anti-Shi'ite groups with roots in the central Punjab province, were all part of the same organization.
""Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, al-Qaeda, TTP; they are one,"" he said. ""And the TTP are there whenever there is suicide bombing.""
Photo: Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik
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