By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The security forces have killed at least 13 militants in two separate attempts to cross the Afghan border this week, the military said, in operations that underscored Islamabad’s deepening frustration with what it described as the Afghan Taliban government’s failure to control its side of the frontier.
In the first clash, troops in Mohmand District detected a group attempting to infiltrate from Afghanistan and “effectively engaged” the militants, killing eight members of Fitna al Khwarij, the term Pakistani authorities use for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. The military’s public relations wing, Inter-Services Public Relations, described the group as “Indian-sponsored” in its statement.
Hours later, in a second engagement in North Waziristan District, troops foiled another infiltration bid after an intense firefight, killing five more militants, the statement said.
The military cast the twin operations as fresh evidence of a pattern. “These engagements once again substantiate Pakistan’s repeated stance regarding abject failure of Afghan Taliban Regime to ensure effective border management on their side,” the Inter-Services Public Relations statement said. It urged the Afghan authorities “to fulfil its obligations and deny terrorists the use of Afghan soil to carry out attacks inside Pakistan.”
The incidents came against a backdrop of persistent cross-border violence that has claimed civilian lives on the Pakistani side. In Bajaur District, local officials reported Thursday that unprovoked Afghan cross-border firing over the past two months had killed at least nine civilians and wounded at least a dozen others.
The casualties occurred in six separate attacks concentrated in the Mamond and Salarzai tehsils, according to a statement from Bajaur Deputy Commissioner Shahid Ali Khan. The strikes hit civilian areas in Bara Laghari and Lara Laghari in Mamond and in Taroopa Shah in Salarzai. Most of those killed or wounded were women and children, the statement said. Eight houses belonging to local residents were destroyed.
The district administration has already begun restoring the damaged homes and said compensation for victims and affected families would be disbursed “soon.” The attacks, however, have left residents shaken. On April 16, hundreds turned out for a large demonstration in Bajaur to protest the shelling.
Separately, Pakistani forces mounted a retaliatory operation in Mohmand District after two mortar shells fired from the Afghan side landed near a security post in Baizai tehsil. The shells struck close to the Suran Dara Shonkari Top post, officials said. In response, troops targeted multiple locations across the frontier in what they described as a “proportionate” and “effective” counterstrike.
Helicopter flights continued intermittently over the border areas in the hours that followed, part of heightened surveillance measures, according to officials familiar with the operations. The sequence of events reflects a long-simmering security challenge along the 1,600-mile Durand Line, the porous colonial-era boundary that both countries have struggled to manage. Pakistani officials have repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban of allowing TTP fighters to use Afghan territory as a launchpad for attacks inside Pakistan, a charge Kabul has denied. The latest clashes come as both governments continue to navigate a fragile relationship strained by militant activity, cross-border raids and mutual recriminations.
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