Islamabad  - Pakistan's top Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud Saturday claimed responsibility for the shootings at an US immigration services centre in New York state that killed 13 people.

"I accept the responsibility. They were my men," Mehsud told reporters in Peshawar on phone from some undisclosed location.

A lone gunman took more than 40 immigrants hostage Friday when they were taking a citizenship class at the American Civic Association building in Binghamton, located around 225 kilometres north-west of New York city.

Peshawar, Apr. 4: While the whole world has expressed shock over the Taliban’s barbaric act of publicly flogging a teenage girl, the Taliban seems to have no regret over the issue as it has said that in actuality the 17 year old girl should have been probably stoned to death for her ‘crime’.

The Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan, defending its act, said the incident happened nine months ago, and that telecasting the video was a conspiracy to sabotage the peace accord.

Peshawar, Apr. 4 : Pakistan based human rights groups and civil society activists have lodged protest against the flogging of a 17-year-old girl by the Taliban in Swat.

"I was crying when I saw the footage on various TV channels. I was helpless. It's a shameful and inhuman act," the Daily Times quoted Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) NWFP Vice Chairwoman Musarrat Hilali, as saying.

The HRCP is observing a countrywide protest on Saturday.

Lahore, Apr. 4: Religious scholars and clerics across Pakistan have condemned the public whipping of a
17-year-old girl by the Taliban in Swat.

The Taliban had alleged that the girl had illicit relations with her father in law, as she had gone out in his presence, instead of her husband.

Girl’s father-in-law was a na-mehram (stranger) for her and she should not have left home with him, the Daily Times quoted them, as saying.

Lahore, Apr. 4: Religious scholars and clerics across Pakistan have condemned the public whipping of a
17-year-old girl by the Taliban in Swat.

The Taliban had alleged that the girl had illicit relations with her father in law, as she had gone out in his presence, instead of her husband.

Girl’s father-in-law was a na-mehram (stranger) for her and she should not have left home with him, the Daily Times quoted them, as saying.

Islamabad, Apr. 4 : Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has ordered a probe into the case of Taliban flogging a 17-year-old girl publicly in Swat, where the government recently signed a sharia deal with the Taliban.

Zardari has sought a report from the NWFP provincial government, and has called for the arrest of those responsible, a presidential spokesman said.

"President is shocked by the act of barbarism that has brought down heads in shame. Such barbarism is unpardonable," the Daily Times quoted spokesman Farhatullah Babar, as saying.