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.
