Pakan says it struck militant hideouts along Afghan border after surge in deadly attacks | World News

Pakan said early Sunday it carried out strikes along the border with Afghanan, targeting hideouts of Pakani militants it blames for recent attacks inside the country. Islamabad did not say in precisely which areas the strikes were carried out or provide other details. There was no immediate comment from Kabul, and reports on social media suggested the strikes were carried out inside Afghanan.

In comments before dawn Sunday, Information Miner Attaullah Tarar wrote on X that the military conducted what he described as “intelligence-based, selective operations” against seven camps belonging to the Pakani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakan, or TTP, and its affiliates. He said an affiliate of the Islamic State group was also targeted in the border region.

In October, Pakan also conducted strikes deep inside Afghanan to target militant hideouts.Tarar said Pakan “has always strived to maintain peace and stability in the region,” but added that the safety and security of Pakani citizens remained a top priority.

The latest development came days after a suicide bomber, backed gunmen, rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the wall of a security post in Bajaur drict in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanan.Story continues below this ad

The blast caused part of the compound to collapse, killing 11 soldiers and a child, and authorities later said the attacker was an Afghan national. Hours before the latest border strikes, another suicide bomber targeted a security convoy in the near Bannu drict in the northwest, killing two soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel.

After Saturday’s violence, Pakan’s military had warned that it would not “exercise any restraint” and that operations against those responsible would continue “irrespective of their location,” language that suggested rising tensions between Islamabad and Kabul.

Tarar said Pakan had “conclusive evidence” that the recent attacks , including a suicide bombing that targeted a Shiite mosque in Islamabad and killed 31 worshippers earlier this month, were carried out militants acting on the “behest of their Afghanan-based leadership and handlers.”

He said Pakan had repeatedly urged Afghanan’s Taliban rulers to take verifiable steps to prevent militant groups from using Afghan territory to launch attacks in Pakan, but alleged that no substantive action had been taken.Story continues below this ad

He said Pakan urges the international community to press Afghanan’s Taliban authorities to uphold their commitments under the Doha agreement not to allow their soil to be used against other countries.

Pakan has seen a surge in militant violence in recent years, much of it blamed on the TTP and outlawed Baloch separat groups. The TTP is separate from but closely allied with Afghanan’s Taliban, who returned to power in 2021. Islamabad accuses the TTP of operating from inside Afghanan, a charge both the group and Kabul deny.

Relations between the neighboring countries have remained tense since October, when deadly border clashes killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants. The violence followed explosions in Kabul that Afghan officials blamed on Pakan.

A Qatar-mediated ceasefire has largely held, but talks in anbul failed to produce a formal agreement, and relations remain strained.