Militant chief among 11 terrorists killed in Wana IBO

Foreign Office rubbishes reports claiming Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Afghanistan

At least 11 terrorists, including a militant commander, were killed as security forces successfully foiled a high-profile terrorist activity during an intelligence-based operation in South Waziristan’s Wana area, the military’s media wing said on Thursday.

During an intense exchange of fire, 11 terrorists including terrorist commander Hafizullah alias Tor Hafiz and two suicide bombers were killed, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.

A huge quantity of weapons and ammunition was also recovered from the terrorists, it added.

ISPR said the militants were actively involved in terrorist activities against security forces and target-killing of police in South Waziristan district.

Pakistan, particularly the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the tribal areas, has seen a surge in terrorist attacks since November, after the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) called off a ceasefire with the government in June and ordered its militants to stage attacks across the country.

The TTP, a separate entity from the Taliban in Afghanistan but sharing a similar hardline ideology, have been responsible for hundreds of attacks and thousands of deaths since emerging in 2007. The government and the TTP had agreed to a truce earlier this year after Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers took a prominent role in brokering peace talks, but negotiations made little progress and there were frequent breaches.

Separately, the Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday categorically rejected reports claiming that Pakistan had carried out airstrikes in Afghanistan, terming them to be “utterly baseless and malicious”.

The statement came hours after reports surfaced claiming Pakistan had carried out airstrikes in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province.

Afghan newspaper Hasht-e-Subh Daily quoted sources as saying that Pakistan “bombed targets in Salala neighborhood in the vicinity of Gushta district” on Thursday morning.

The development comes amid an uptick in terrorist attacks across the country, believed to have been planned and directed by the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leaders based in Afghanistan.

The TTP, which has ideological linkages with the Afghan Taliban, executed around more than 100 attacks last year, most of which happened after August when the group’s peace talks with the Pakistan government began to falter. The ceasefire was formally ended last year on Nov 28 by the TTP.

It also comes as the National Security Committee (NSC) categorically asked Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, without directly naming them, to deny safe havens to terrorist groups on its soil and end their patronage, while reiterating its intent to crush terrorist groups operating inside the country with full force.