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Minister of Information and Radio, Attaullah Tarar. PHOTO: APP
ISLAMABAD:
Security forces killed 67 Fitna al-Khawarij terrorists in Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Tuesday as ‘Operation Ghazab Lil Haq’ continued in full force across the border.
In several updates on X, Tarar said the Afghan Taliban launched coordinated cross-border attacks overnight but were effectively repulsed. He described the attacks as part of a wider pattern of aggression that led to sustained ground and air responses by Pakistani forces.
According to the minister, terrorists in northern Balochistan carried out attacks at 16 locations across Qilla Saifullah, Noshki and Chaman districts. In addition to these ground attacks, Pakistani troops faced fire attacks at 25 separate points.
All attacks were repulsed, with 27 terrorists killed and “scores” more wounded in the exchanges, Tarar wrote. During the clashes, one soldier of Frontier Corps (FC) Balochistan (North) embraced martyrdom while defending the country and five were injured, he added.
In KP, Tarar presented a separate operational report stating that a physical attack was attempted at one location while fire attacks were carried out at 12 locations. He said all were repulsed without loss of life on the Pakistani side.
Forty Afghan Taliban were killed in overnight operations in the province, he added, noting that follow-up clearance and pursuit operations are still ongoing. The latest figures bring the total number of Afghan Taliban killed in the latest wave of engagements to 67.
So far, according to the ministry, 464 Afghan Taliban members have been killed and more than 665 wounded since ‘Operation Ghazab Lil Haq’ was launched last Thursday in response to an attack on Pakistani forces along the Afghan border.
During the operation, the ministry said, 188 checkpoints have been destroyed, 31 posts captured and 192 tanks, armored vehicles and artillery guns destroyed. Sources said 56 locations were effectively targeted through air operations across Afghanistan.
On Tuesday morning, according to security sources, a full-scale air operation in Jalalabad, the capital of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, destroyed an ammunition depot and a drone warehouse. The Khogyani base, also in Nangarhar, was destroyed in an airstrike.
Pakistani forces also captured a checkpoint in Paktika and raised the Pakistani flag, while three more posts were destroyed. AFP journalists in Kabul reported hearing more explosions and gunfire on Tuesday.
Tarar said “security forces are thwarting the nefarious designs of the enemy with full force and the operation will continue till its logical conclusion.” Security sources stated that Afghan Taliban and Fitna al-Khawarij elements were in retreat following the Pakistani ground and air operations.
Amid the intensified military exchanges, Pakistan’s Ministry of Information moved to counter disinformation emanating from Kabul. The fact-checking wing of the ministry categorically rejected claims that Afghan forces had carried out airstrikes on Pakistani military bases.
Islamabad dismissed the Afghan reports as “completely false” and described them as “futile attempts” to create “fake success stories”. Officials stated that the Afghan Taliban lacks the ability to carry out long-range airstrikes.
(WITH ACCESS FROM APP)
