ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday congratulated the army for military operations in which nine militants were killed in the country’s northwest, lauding soldiers for their “unwavering resolve” in fighting militancy.
The army said on Monday nine militants were killed in two separate military operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province amid a surge in militancy that Islamabad blames on neighboring Afghanistan, saying Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, leaders run camps there to train insurgents who launch attacks inside Pakistan. The Afghan Taliban rulers in Kabul say rising violence in Pakistan is a domestic issue for Islamabad and it does not allow militants to operate on its soil.
The TTP pledges allegiance to, and gets its name from, the Afghan Taliban, but is not directly a part of the group. Its stated aim is to impose Islamic religious law in Pakistan, as the Taliban have done in Afghanistan.
“The entire nation stands shoulder to shoulder with the valiant sons of Pakistan’s armed forces for purging the country from the scourge of terrorism,” Radio Pakistan quoted the prime minister as saying on Tuesday. “Unwavering resolve of the guardians of Pakistan for establishing peace in the country is highly commendable.”
Pakistani forces were able to effectively dismantle the TTP and kill most of its top leadership in a string of military operations from 2014 onwards in the country’s tribal areas, driving most of the fighters across the border into Afghanistan, where Islamabad says they have regrouped. Kabul denies this.
Last month, the federal government announced it would launch a new counter-terrorism operation, Azm-e-Istehkam, but the campaign has so far been opposed by opposition parties.
