Pakistani security forces killed nine terrorists, including two suicide bombers. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Pakistani security forces killed nine terrorists, including two suicide bombers and a “high-value” terrorist, during an operation in the country’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the military said on Thursday, October 24, 2024.

The intelligence-based operation was conducted late on Wednesday (October 23, 2024) in the Bajaur district of the province, according to the military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

Also Read: Pakistan witnessed 59 terror attacks in August

After a fierce gunbattle, the law enforcement agency personnel killed nine terrorists.

“Among those killed were two suicide bombers and a terrorist ring leader who was a high-value target,” the ISPR statement said, adding that the slain militants remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities against the security forces and civilians.

While the security forces recovered large quantities of weapons, ammunition, and explosives from the terrorists, sanitisation operations were underway to eliminate any further militants in the area, it added.

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As per the third quarterly report issued by the Islamabad-based think tank Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), the total fatalities from three quarters of this year surpassed the total fatalities recorded in 2023 with 1,534 deaths compared to last year’s 1,523.

A total of 722 people were killed, including civilians, security personnel, and outlaws, while 615 others were injured in as many as 328 incidents recorded during the third quarter.

Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces have faced the major brunt of terror attacks, the report said.

At least eight Afghan Taliban soldiers, including two key commanders, have been killed in a fierce clash with the Pakistani security forces in the border region near the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The exchange, which was reported in the Khurram border district of the province over the weekend, also injured 16 Afghan Taliban soldiers.

The Afghan side attacked a Pakistani checkpost with heavy weapons in the Palosin area on the Pak-Afghan border on Saturday (September 7, 2024) morning, the Dawn newspaper reported, quoting sources.

“We have reports about heavy losses on the other [Afghan] side. So far, eight Afghan Taliban have been killed, and 16 others have sustained injuries in retaliatory firing by the Pakistani forces,” sources said, adding that two ‘key’ commanders were also killed.

There was no official word on the incident from the Pakistan military’s media wing— the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

This is not the first time Afghan troops have opened fire on Pakistani security forces posted at the border.

In the past, Islamabad shared its concerns with Kabul over such incidents.

The Afghan Taliban, apart from facilitating militant activities inside Pakistan, were now openly attacking the forces along the international border, sources said.

Due to the tense security situation, trade between the two countries remained suspended over the weekend. There were reports of intermittent firing on the border on Sunday as well, but no casualties were reported.

Meanwhile, a paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) official was killed, and three others sustained injuries in a militant attack in the Marghan area of central Kurram on Sunday (September 8, 2024).

In May, the Foreign Office conveyed its concerns to Kabul after a large number of locals were displaced in the Kharlachi border crossing and sought shelter in safer places in the wake of clashes between the two neighbouring countries.

At the time, tribal elders from Kurram and the Afghan side played a role in defusing the tensions. However, clashes on the border had prompted large-scale displacement from villages and settlements near the Kharlachi border crossing.

Kharlachi crossing connects Pakistan’s northwestern Kunnar tribal district with Afghanistan’s eastern Paktia province.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks, mostly in the northwest which borders Afghanistan, in recent years. Representative image
| Photo Credit: AP

All 10 militants who rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a Pakistani military facility were killed in an 18-hour operation, officials said July 16, adding that militants in a separate attack on a health facility killed five civilians.

In its statement, the Pakistani military said eight soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber early on Monday rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into the outer wall of an army housing complex in Bannu, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The suicide attack

A splinter group of Pakistani Taliban, led by a militant commander Gul Bahadur, claimed the attack, which has been denounced by the country’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and other officials.

The military said the suicide attack collapsed a portion of the wall and damaged nearby infrastructure, resulting in the killing of the eight soldiers.

Responding to the attack, security forces killed all ten attackers, it said. The military said a “timely and effective response by the security forces prevented major catastrophe.”

Pakistan has consistently raised its concerns with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, the military adds, “asking them to deny persistent use of Afghan soil by the terrorists and to take effective action against such elements.”

The military said Pakistan’s armed forces “will keep defending the motherland and its people against this menace of terrorism and will take all necessary measures as deemed appropriate against these threats emanating from Afghanistan.”

There was no immediate comment from Kabul.

Surge in militant attacks

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks, mostly in the northwest which borders Afghanistan, in recent years.

In a separate incident, five civilians, including two women health workers and two children, were killed on Tuesday when militants opened fire at a health facility in the northwestern district of Dera Ismail Khan, the military said in a statement.

In a statement, troops stationed nearby responded to the attack, killing three of the attackers. However, two soldiers were also “martyred” in the ensuing shootout, it said.

The military said that those behind the killings of innocent people “will be brought to justice.”

No one claimed responsibility for the attack on the health facility.

However, most such previous attacks on civilians and security forces have been blamed on the Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP.

They are a separate group but also an ally of the Afghan Taliban. TTP has stepped up its attacks on security forces across the country since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.

Plainclothes police officers examine the burnt furniture which were torched by a Muslim mob in an attack, in Madyan in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Friday, June 21, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

A Muslim mob in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, June 20, 2024 broke into a police station, snatched a man who was held there and then lynched him over allegations that he had desecrated Islam’s holy book, the Koran.

Read: Editorial | In the name of god: On how dangerously sectarian Pakistan is

The attackers also torched the station in Madyan, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and burned police vehicles parked there, according to local police official Rahim Ullah.

The slain man, Mohammad Ismail, was a tourist who was staying at a hotel in the town when some locals turned on him and accused him of blasphemy.

Ullah said police officers took the man to the station for his protection but the mob swelled and pursued them. The mob then attacked the station, snatched Ismail, beat him to death and then burned his body and left it on the road.

Additional police forces have arrived in Madyan to bring the situation under control, Ullah said.

It wasn’t immediately known if any of the attackers were arrested.

Attacks on people accused of blasphemy are common in this conservative Islamic nation where charges of blasphemy can carry the death sentence.

A tool to settle personal scores?

International and national rights groups say blasphemy accusations have often been used to intimidate religious minorities and settle personal scores.

Last month, a mob in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province attacked a Christian man, Nazir Masih, 72, after accusing him of desecrating pages of Koran. He later died at a hospital.