ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Taliban claimed responsibility Saturday for recent suicide attacks in Pakistan, including the assassination of a leading moderate cleric and the bombing of a Peshawar hotel frequented by foreign-aid workers.
President Asif Ali Zardari addressed the nation and vowed to continue fighting the Taliban "until the end," calling it a battle for Pakistan's survival.
Taliban militants have unleashed a battery of suicide attacks since Pakistan launched a major offensive in the volatile Swat Valley in the country's northwest more than a month ago. Friday's bombing of the cleric, Sarfraz Naeemi, at his seminary in the eastern city of Lahore triggered a wave of public anger and revulsion.
Thousands of people gathered late Saturday for his funeral in the country's cultural capital, surging forward to try to touch his casket as pallbearers carried it to a crypt, where it was sealed and covered with rose petals. The protesters demanded death for each and every Taliban member and a public hanging for their leader, Baitullah Mehsud.
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In Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, a general strike was held to mourn Naeemi. Many streets were deserted, and shops were closed. About 200 activists of Jamat Ahle Sunnat, a moderate Muslim sect, staged a mock funeral procession of Taliban, burning one in effigy to show their anger over the deadly bombing. The group chanted "Down with the Taliban; Taliban, the enemy of Islam; death for the killers of Sarfraz Naeemi."
The seminary bombing was echoed within minutes at a mosque used by troops in the northwestern city of Nowshera, killing at least four and wounding 100. The attacks took the count of suicide bombings to five in eight days, including a huge blast at the luxury Pearl Continental Hotel in nearby Peshawar that killed 11 people.
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