ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said on Wednesday the fight against “terrorism” would continue until the “menace” was eradicated from the country, as the army said two soldiers had been killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack on a security forces’ convoy in the northwest.
In a second attack, a bomb exploded at a shop in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP group, in the northwestern city of Wana, killing a pro-government elder, Aslam Noor, and two others civilians.
They claimed responsibility for the attack on the troops, but denied any role in the bombing that killed the three civilians. The TTP is a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban who in August 2021 seized Afghanistan as US and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war.
The attack in which the soldier was killed took place in the Razmak area in North Waziristan district in the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Resultantly, two soldiers; Lance Naik Ehsan Badshah (age: 33 years, resident of: District Karak) and Lance Naik Sajid Hussain (age: 30 years, resident of: District Kurram), embraced Shahadat,” the military said.
Islamabad says the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has emboldened the Pakistani Taliban who have stepped up attacks against police and troops across the country since last November when the group called off a tenuous truce with the government.
The Afghan Taliban deny they allow Afghan soil to be used by militants.
“We will continue the war against terrorism until this menace is eradicated from the country,” the PM said in a statement about the North Waziristan attack.
“The sacrifices of Pakistan Army and law enforcement agencies for the survival of the country are unforgettable. The entire nation including me is proud of our martyrs.”
Pakistan will fight ‘menace of terrorism’ to the end, PM says as two soldiers killed in IED attack
https://arab.news/43r8t
Pakistan will fight ‘menace of terrorism’ to the end, PM says as two soldiers killed in IED attack
- Attack took place in Razmak area in North Waziristan district in northwest province
- Pro-government elder and two others civilians were killed in a second attack in Wana city
No casualties as blast derails Jaffar Express train in Pakistan’s south
- Passengers were stranded and railway staffers were clearing the track after blast, official says
- In March 2025, separatist militants hijacked the same train with hundreds of passengers aboard
QUETTA: A blast hit Jaffar Express and derailed four carriages of the passenger train in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province on Monday, officials said, with no casualties reported.
The blast occurred at the Abad railway station when the Peshawar-bound train was on its way to Sindh’s Sukkur city from Quetta, according to Pakistan Railways’ Quetta Division controller Muhammad Kashif.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bomb attack, but passenger trains have often been targeted by Baloch separatist outfits in the restive Balochistan province that borders Sindh.
“Four bogies of the train were derailed due to the intensity of the explosion,” Kashif told Arab News. “No casualty was reported in the latest attack on passenger train.”
Another railway employee, who was aboard the train and requested anonymity, said the train was heading toward Sukkur from Jacobabad when they heard the powerful explosion, which derailed power van among four bogies.
“A small piece of the railway track has been destroyed,” he said, adding that passengers were now standing outside the train and railway staffers were busy clearing the track.
In March last year, fighters belonging to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group had stormed Jaffar Express with hundreds of passengers on board and took them hostage. The military had rescued them after an hours-long operation that left 33 militants, 23 soldiers, three railway staff and five passengers dead.
The passenger train, which runs between Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta and Peshawar in the country’s northwest, had been targeted in at least four bomb attacks last year since the March hijacking, according to an Arab News tally.
Pakistan Railways says it has beefed up security arrangements for passenger trains in the province and increased the number of paramilitary troops on Jaffar Express since the hijacking in March, but militants have continued to target them in the restive region.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s southwestern province that borders Iran and Afghanistan, is the site of a decades-long insurgency waged by Baloch separatist groups who often attack security forces and foreigners, and kidnap government officials.
The separatists accuse the central government of stealing the region’s resources to fund development elsewhere in the country. The Pakistani government denies the allegations and says it is working for the uplift of local communities in Balochistan.
