Pakistan's former president Pervez Musharraf has downplayed an assassination threat by Taliban, vowing to go ahead with his homecoming planned for Sunday, dpa reported.
In a video message, Pakistani Taliban figure Adnan Rasheed warned that the militants had formed a death squad that included suicide bombers and snipers to "send Musharraf to hell" after his arrival from Dubai.
At a news conference Saturday in Dubai, Musharraf said people had been threatening him with not only words but actions, but he did not get scared.
"I don't react to a telephone call or a statement which may be true or untrue," the former army chief told reporters. "So I will go; worry is there but one has to take countermeasures."
Musharraf said he had requested the Pakistani government for security cover, and would also have his own team of ex-soldiers selected from the army's elite commando units, which he commanded himself for about a decade.
Rasheed, who was convicted for his part in a previous attempt on Musharraf's life and freed from jail in an April 2012 militant raid, asked the former ruler to surrender, warning that "otherwise we will hit you from where you would never recon (know)."
The Taliban video also carried footage of about 15 men in camouflage clothing, carrying rocket-propelled grenades as well as sniper and assault rifles.
Meanwhile, Musharraf said he was returning to Pakistan with an aim to break "the political status quo and to bring about a third political force," ahead of crucial national elections scheduled for May 11.
Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup in October 1999 after toppling an elected government, and he resigned amid threats of impeachment after his supporters lost the election in 2008.