Islamabad: Pakistani security forces said on Sunday they killed 29 militants after launching a ground operation near the Afghanistan border and conducting targeted strikes on militant bases across the frontier.
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar wrote on X that the move was in response to several militant attacks around the country. The operation followed an assault the previous day on the regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in Karachi, in which three soldiers were killed. Security forces killed three attackers and detained another, whom the military said was an Afghan national and was wounded, AP reported.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack in a statement Saturday night.
Tarar said the recent operation focused on hideouts and safe havens used by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and what Pakistan calls Fitna al-Khwarij, a label it applies to the Pakista
ni Taliban. He said security forces first carried out an intelligence-based ground raid near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Bajaur, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, adding that “as a result of precise and skillful engagement, high value Khwarji Commander Khan Farosh” was killed along with three others.
He added that, based on intelligence, forces then struck terrorist camps and hideouts belonging to Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Fitna al-Khwarij along the frontier. “Three targets in Afghanistan’s Paktia, Paktika and Kunar provinces were destroyed during the precision strikes, killing 25 terrorists,” Tarar said.
Tarar also said that large quantities of weapons and ammunition stored at those marakiz and hideouts were destroyed.
“Pakistan has always strived for maintaining peace and stability in the region, but at the same time shall not compromise on the safety and security of our citizens, which remains our top priority,” he said.
Pakistan has seen an uptick in attacks on police and security forces in recent years. Authorities blame the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and allied militant factions for much of the violence. The TTP is distinct from the Afghan Taliban, though the groups are allied; the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021.
Since last year, Pakistan has carried out multiple strikes along the border and inside Afghanistan targeting suspected TTP and other militant hideouts. Islamabad accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government of sheltering militants who carry out deadly attacks inside Pakistan, a charge Kabul denies.