ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Army Chief General Asim Munir vowed action against militants on Friday, following a week of deadly attacks in which dozens of civilians and security officials have been killed in the country’s northwest.
In the latest attack, gunmen opened fire on vehicles carrying members of the minority Shiite community in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Thursday, killing at least 41 people in one of the region’s deadliest such attacks in recent years. The assault took place in Kurram, a district where sectarian clashes have killed dozens of people in recent months. No group has claimed responsibility.
On Tuesday, ten Pakistan army soldiers and two from the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary were killed on Tuesday as militants attacked a checkpost in the northwestern Bannu district.
Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province in the northwest and the remote southwestern province of Balochistan have both seen an increase in strikes by militants this year.
“He [Munir] reiterated the army’s firm resolve to dismantle hostile terrorist networks and eradicate the illegal spectrum undermining national security,” the army’s media wing said in a statement, quoting Munir as saying after he attended a security meeting in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“He assured that through synchronized and robust operations, Pakistan Army in collaboration with Law Enforcement Agencies will relentlessly hunt down the enemies of peace to ensure lasting stability and security.”
In a separate statement, the army said it had carried out three operations in Balochistan on Nov. 20-22, in which four militants had been killed.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired a meeting of civil and military leaders who gave the go-ahead for a "comprehensive operation" against separatist insurgents in Balochistan.
Army chief vows action after deadly week of militant attacks in Pakistan
https://arab.news/89vpx
Army chief vows action after deadly week of militant attacks in Pakistan
- Twelve soldiers were killed on Tuesday as militants attacked a checkpost in the northwestern Bannu district
- Gunmen opened fire on vehicles carrying minority Shiite community members in KP province on Thursday, killing 41
Pakistan says 67 Afghan Taliban killed in border clashes
- Information Minister Tarar says coordinated attacks in Balochistan and KP were effectively repulsed
- Security official says Pakistan carried out ground and air strikes in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Tuesday it forces have killed 67 Afghan Taliban fighters in cross-border clashes in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), after what Information Minister Ataullah Tarar described as coordinated attacks on multiple locations along the frontier.
Pakistan, which has frequently blamed Afghanistan for sheltering anti-Pakistan militant groups like the proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and facilitating their cross-border attacks, said it targeted militant hideouts on the other side of the frontier after repeatedly taking up the issue with the administration in Kabul.
The Afghan Taliban, who have always denied Islamabad’s charges, launched what Pakistan called “unprovoked aggression” in support of militant entities.
“Afghan Taliban resorted to physical attack on 16 locations in Northern Balochistan in Qilla Saifullah, Noshki and Chaman Districts while engaging our troops on 25 locations in fire raid,” Tarar said in a social media post.
“The attack at all the locations have been effectively repulsed with Afghan Taliban suffering 27 killed and scores injured,” he added. “One soldier of FC Balochistan North gave the ultimate sacrifice while defending the motherland while five soldiers are injured.”
Tarar reported similar hostilities in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, where a physical attack was attempted at one location and fire raids were conducted on 12 others, all of which were repulsed without Pakistani casualties.
“40 Afghan Taliban were killed in the overnight operations in KP,” he said.
A senior security official told Arab News on condition of anonymity that Pakistani forces were also conducting ground and air operations across the border in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province.
The official said Pakistani forces had destroyed an ammunition depot and drone storage facility near Jalalabad and targeted the Khogani base in Nangarhar, adding that the operation against Afghanistan would continue until its objectives were achieved.
There was no immediate comment from Afghan authorities.
