Pakistani security forces killed 15 militants attempting to infiltrate the country’s northwest from Afghanistan, the military said on Thursday, in the latest cross-border clash to strain relations between the neighbours, according to DAWN.
The gunmen tried to enter North Waziristan district on the night of August 31 into September 1 but were spotted by troops, who engaged them over 36 hours before killing all 15, the military’s media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said in a statement.
ISPR described the dead as “khawarij” — the government’s term for the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — and said they belonged to a faction it labelled “India-sponsored”. Large quantities of weapons and ammunition were recovered from the scene during a subsequent search operation, it added, saying this underscored the group’s intent to undermine stability in Pakistan.
The military repeated Islamabad’s long-standing accusation that the Afghan Taliban authorities have failed to prevent their territory being used for attacks on Pakistan.
“The Afghan Taliban regime has consistently failed to ensure effective border management and honour its international obligations,” ISPR said, adding that a clean-up operation was under way to root out any remaining militants in the area as part of the “Azm-i-Istehkam” counter-terrorism campaign endorsed by the National Action Plan’s federal apex committee.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif praised the troops for thwarting the infiltration bid, saying their professionalism, patience and courage had crushed the militants’ “impure intentions”. He vowed the counter-terrorism campaign would press on until terrorism was eliminated from the country, according to state broadcaster PTV.
President Asif Ali Zardari also commended the security forces, saying in a statement from the presidency that their resolve to defend the country’s borders and safeguard peace was commendable. He warned that no militant group operating with foreign backing would be allowed to sow unrest in Pakistan.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi likewise lauded the operation, saying the security forces had reduced the militants’ hostile intentions “to dust”.
The incident comes as Islamabad keeps up pressure on Kabul to act against the TTP, which has stepped up attacks on Pakistani security forces in recent years, mostly from bases it says are located across the border in Afghanistan. The Taliban authorities deny allowing their territory to be used for such attacks.
Despite a flurry of diplomatic contacts aimed at easing friction between the two countries, Pakistan’s Foreign Office said on Wednesday that any real improvement in ties would hinge on verifiable Taliban action against the TTP and other militant groups based in Afghanistan.
The comments came at a weekly briefing, amid a visit to Islamabad by Chinese special envoy Yue Xiaoyong to revive the so-called Urumqi dialogue process meant to de-escalate tensions, and after Afghan ambassador Sardar Shakeb was invited to address Pakistan’s National Defence University.
Pakistani officials say they see scant evidence that the Taliban have gone beyond merely restraining TTP activity. A recent report by a UN sanctions monitoring team found that the Taliban had moved roughly 2,000 TTP fighters and their relatives away from the frontier with Pakistan, and that Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada had cautioned the group against striking Pakistani targets.
However, the same report said Taliban support for the TTP persisted even as the group escalated its attacks and expanded its organisational structure.
Islamabad maintains that relocating fighters falls well short of dismantling the command structures, training facilities and logistics networks it says continue to sustain the group’s operations from Afghan soil.
