PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani security forces acting on intelligence killed 30 militants in multiple raids on Pakistani Taliban hideouts in the country’s northwestern region, the military said on Friday.
The raids came after insurgents this week ambushed a security convoy, killing 11 soldiers. A group of Pakistani Taliban also attacked a police facility in the northwestern city of Dera Ismail Khan on Friday night, and multiple blasts were heard, police said.
The raids were conducted in Orakzai, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where a military convoy came under attack Wednesday, the military said in a statement. The ambush “martyred” 11 soldiers, including two senior officers, the statement said.
In a brief statement Wednesday, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the convoy ambush in Orakzai and other areas.
According to the military, all 30 militants were killed in the raids on Wednesday and Thursday and identified as members of “Khwarij,” a term the government uses for militants it accuses of being backed by India, including those associated with the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.
“These successful operations have avenged the heinous act and brought the main perpetrators to justice,” the statement said. It added that operations were continuing to hunt and eliminate any other “Indian-sponsored Khwarij” in the area, reaffirming that Pakistan’s forces remain determined to eradicate terrorism from the country.
Friday gunfire
A group of Pakistani Taliban, including suicide bombers, struck a sprawling police training center on Friday in the northwestern city of Dera Ismail Khan, emergency services and local police said.
Sajjad Ahmad, the district police chief, said the exchange of fire with the attackers was still ongoing.
He gave no further details, and residents said they heard multiple blasts shortly after the attack, and gunshots were still being heard, as authorities sent reinforcements to respond to the attack, which came hours after the army spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif at a news conference in Peshawar asked the Afghan Taliban government not to allow Pakistani Taliban to use the Afghan soil for attacks in Pakistan.
He also said India is also backing militants for violence in Pakistan.
Pakistani Taliban in a brief statement has claimed responsibility for carrying out the suicide attack on police in Dera Ismail Khan.
‘No leniency’
Pakistan has long accused New Delhi of supporting separatists in Balochistan and the Pakistani Taliban, allegations India denies.
The latest development came a day after Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif told Parliament that Pakistan would show “no leniency” in responding to such attacks. He said the country would target “those places from where insurgents attack our security forces.”
He also urged Afghanistan’s Taliban government to prevent the use of Afghan soil for attacks on Pakistan. Pakistan has seen a sharp rise in militant violence in recent years, much of it claimed by the TTP. The group — separate from but allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban — has been emboldened since the Taliban takeover of Kabul in 2021.
Many TTP leaders and fighters are believed to operate from sanctuaries across the Afghan border, straining relations between Islamabad and Kabul.
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Associated Press writer Ishtiaq Mahsud contributed to this story from Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan.
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Pakistani forces kill 30 militants after deadly ambush that killed soldiers in country’s northwest
