(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) ISLAMABAD, March 18 (KUNA) -- Pakistan on Monday carried out intelligence-based anti-terrorist operations in the border regions inside Afghanistan, said Pakistan Foreign Office.
According to an Office press release, the prime target of operation was the terrorists belonging to Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group, which along with Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is responsible for multiple terrorist attacks inside Pakistan, resulting in deaths of hundreds of civilians and law enforcement officials.
"The latest attack took place on 16 March 2024 at a security post in Mir Ali in North Waziristan and claimed the lives of seven Pakistani soldiers," said the Foreign Office. It further said that over the past two years, Pakistan has repeatedly conveyed its serious concerns to the Interim Afghan Government over the presence of terror outfits including TTP inside Afghanistan. "These terrorists pose a grave threat to Pakistan's security and have consistently used Afghan territory to launch terror attacks inside Pakistani territory."
Meanwhile, the spokesperson for Taliban-led Afghan government; Zabihullah Mujahid in a statement to media said that the Afghan provinces of Paktika and Khost along the Pakistan border were hit by airstrikes by Pakistani aircraft killing at least eight people. He said that planes had bombed the Laman area in Paktika's Barmal district and the Afghan-Dubai area in Khost's Spera district. The strikes come a day after President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari vowed retaliation following the killing of seven soldiers, including two officers, in a terrorist attack on a security forces' post in North Waziristan tribal district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan on Saturday. The banned outfit Hafiz Gul Bahadar group had claimed responsibility for the deadly attack. (end)
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