Islamabad, June 29: Pakistan on Monday said its security forces killed 29 militants in a ground operation near the Afghan border and subsequent cross-border strikes, as Islamabad and Kabul summoned each other’s charge d’affaires to lodge diplomatic protests over the latest escalation.
Pakistan summoned Afghanistan’s charge d’affaires in Islamabad over the recent attack on a Pakistan Rangers headquarters in Karachi, alleging Afghan nationals and their territory were used to facilitate the assault.
Afghanistan, in turn, summoned Pakistan’s charge d’affaires in Kabul to protest what it alleged were Pakistani air strikes on civilian homes in Kunar, Paktia and Paktika provinces in violation of its airspace and sovereignty.
Pakistan said the military action was carried out in response to a series of recent militant attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and on the Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) camp in Karachi.
Information Minister Atta Tarar said security forces conducted an intelligence-based ground operation against a group of militants near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Bajaur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on June 28.
Tarar said four militants were killed in the Bajaur operation. It was followed by precision strikes carried out during the night of June 28-29 under ‘Operation Ghazab lil-Haq’, targeting what Pakistan described as militant camps and hideouts in Afghanistan’s Paktia, Paktika and Kunar provinces.
According to Tarar, the strikes destroyed three targets in the three provinces, killing 25 militants and destroying weapons and ammunition stored there.
“A well-planned intelligence-based ground operation was carried out by security forces along the Pakistan-Afghan border, followed by calibrated strikes in the border region against the hideouts and safe havens of terrorists belonging to Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Fitna-al-Khwarij, killing twenty-nine Khwarij,” Tarar said.
“Fitna-al-Khwarij” is the term officially used by Pakistan to refer to the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and allied militant groups. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar is affiliated with the TTP. (PTI)
