ISLAMABAD (AP) – The Pakistani army attacked a militant hideout in the quiet northwestern region of the country, which borders Afghanistan, and fired a shot that killed seven soldiers and five insurgents, according to the report. military this Wednesday.
The Pakistani Taliban issued a statement claiming responsibility for the incident and saying they had ambushed the troops. The militant group, separate from the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan, has been fighting the Pakistani government for several years.
An army statement said the night raid took place in the South Waziristan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a former tribal region that was a refuge for militants on both sides of the country. border until 2017, when the Pakistani army declared that it had cleared the region of insurgents after several operations.
The military did not provide further details about the night raid and only said a search operation was still ongoing.
Pakistani national security adviser Moeed Yusuf confirmed the attack and told a news conference on Wednesday that he hoped the new Taliban government in Afghanistan would not allow any militant group, including the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik. -e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP. use Afghan soil to attack Pakistan or any other country.
Yusuf said border militants were exploiting the fluid situation in Afghanistan to target Pakistani troops. “We made it very clear (to the Afghan Taliban) that we will not accept any terrorism from Afghan territory,” he said.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed condemned the latest attack. He paid tribute to the martyred soldiers and pledged that Pakistani military operations against terrorists would continue in southern Waziristan.
Despite the military’s claim that the region had been cleared of militants, South Waziristan still sees sporadic attacks, mainly aimed at Pakistani security forces. Pakistan has blamed the country’s illegal ban on Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan for most of the attacks.
Pakistan and Afghanistan share an internationally recognized 2,400-kilometer-long border known as the Durand Line. It was drawn in the 19th century, when the British dominated South Asia. Afghanistan has never recognized the border.
Before the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in a swift campaign that dominated most of the country in less than a week and seized the Afghan capital, Kabul, on August 15, the two neighboring countries they regularly traded with accusations, blaming the other for going blind. watch out for militants operating along the porous border.
Since the Taliban took possession of Afghanistan, there have been growing concerns that would encourage the Pakistani Taliban to carry out more attacks and threaten the government in Islamabad.
A few years ago, Islamabad began building a fence along the border, insisting it intended to prevent cross-border attacks. Authorities say the fence is 90% complete.