PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administration on Saturday confirmed an “anti-terror operation” after an international wire agency reported that drone strikes killed at least 11 people, including women and children, just hours before the Pakistani Taliban announced a three-day Eid Al-Fitr ceasefire.
The strikes targeted what officials described as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) hideouts in the Katling area of Mardan district, following a TTP attack a day earlier that killed seven soldiers during an army operation elsewhere in the province.
“An anti-terror operation was conducted in the Katling mountainous area of Mardan district based on credible information about the presence of terrorists,” said Muhammad Ali Saif, spokesperson for the provincial government. “According to reports, this location was being used for the hideout and movement of terrorist elements.”
However, he added as per the information received later, there were some unarmed civilians around the scene of the incident as well.
“It is regrettable that unarmed people were killed in the operation, including women and children,” he added.
While the military has not commented publicly on the incident, police sources confirmed to AFP that three drone strikes were carried out on Friday night. It was only on Saturday morning, they said, that officials learned two women and three children were among the dead.
“In protest, local residents placed the bodies of the victims on the road,” a senior police officer told AFP, saying they were being described by locals as “innocent civilians.”
Another official said an investigation was under way to determine whether militants were present at the time of the strikes.
“It is too early to say whether the places affected were civilian areas or whether they were sheltering Taliban,” he said.
Shortly after reports of the casualties emerged, the TTP released a statement announcing a three-day ceasefire on the occasion of Eid Al-Fitr.
“The leadership of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has decided that, on the joyous occasion of Eid Al-Fitr, a three-day ceasefire will be observed as a gesture to allow the people of Pakistan to celebrate in peace,” the group said in a statement.
It added that TTP fighters would refrain from operations on the last day of Ramadan, Eid day, and the day after Eid, but reserved the right to respond in self-defense if attacked.
The TTP, which announced a “spring offensive” earlier this month, has claimed responsibility for around 100 attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in recent weeks.
In Friday’s separate incident, seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in an hours-long gunbattle with Taliban fighters holed up in a house in the province.
The army later deployed helicopter gunships, killing eight militants, while six other soldiers were wounded, according to police sources.
According to an AFP tally, over 190 people — mostly security personnel — have been killed in militant violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan since the start of the year.
Last year was the deadliest in nearly a decade, with more than 1,600 fatalities nationwide, nearly half of them security forces, according to the Center for Research and Security Studies.
Islamabad blames the surge in attacks on militants using Afghan territory as a base, particularly the TTP, which Pakistan says enjoys sanctuaries across the border.
The Afghan Taliban-led government in Kabul denies this, and accuses Pakistan in return of harboring Daesh militants.
With input from AFP