ISLAMABAD - The Federal Interior Ministry has rejected the claim of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) that it has not been planning any attack on the long march, announced by Tehreek-e-Minhaj-ul-Quran Chief, Tahir-ul-Qadri.
TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan, the other day, denied a statement of Interior Minister Rehman Malik. The minister while warning about a security threat had said that the outlawed group had threatened to attack the proposed long march on January 14. 
The Interior Ministry has claimed that the threat alert was based on a codal call intercepted by a credible intelligence source. The conversation contained the talk of a person speaking to closer operator of TTP Chief, Hakeem Ullah Mehsud, asking him for one more vehicle to prepare terrorist attack on Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri’s rally. The ministry has said that the caller used the Miran Shah-based PTCL exchange and the threat alert was very credible.
The ministry in an official statement has said that the statement of TTP in electronic media on January 8 was an effort to mislead Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri in particular and public in general. The government does not believe in the fake representative of the TTP and will continue to take protective measures for the long march participants and will not leave any stone unturned to ensure security of Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri within the available resources, further says the statement.
The TTP spokesman in a recent press statement from an undisclosed location said that the group had not issued any threat to attack the long march despite severe political and ideological differences with Qadri. He had further said the government and some political parties for their own interests spread rumours that TTP would attack his proposed long march.