By Staff Reporter
WANA: Security forces foiled a suicide bombing attempt against a military post in Pakistan’s tribal belt late on Wednesday, killing the would-be attacker and three other militants before they could reach their target, officials said.
The attackers tried to breach the post in the Kari Kot area of Wana, in Lower South Waziristan, using a vehicle loaded with explosives, the officials said. Security forces detected the threat before the vehicle reached the post and killed the suicide bomber along with three other militants in the ensuing operation, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with standard practice for discussing security operations.
Eight people, including six police officers, were injured in the incident, according to police officials and a report from the district headquarters hospital in Wana, where the injured were taken. All eight sustained what hospital officials characterised as minor injuries.
Residents in the area reported hearing an explosion as the attack unfolded. The blast damaged nearby homes and shops, according to local accounts.
Security forces launched a search-and-clearance operation in the area following the failed attack, officials said. Police said an investigation was continuing.
The targeted post has served to shield the local population and to block militants from reaching Wana Bazaar, according to security officials, who said the attempted attack reflected the group’s repeated failure to achieve its broader objectives in the area.
The assault was the latest in a string of attacks on security installations in South Waziristan, a district that — along with much of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province — has endured sustained militant violence in recent years. A monthly assessment from the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies found that the country’s overall security situation deteriorated sharply in May after two consecutive months of improvement, driven largely by escalating violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.
District administrations in Upper and Lower South Waziristan imposed Section 144 — a legal measure barring gatherings of four or more people — in several areas last month, citing security concerns tied to militant movement and ongoing operations by security forces.
The Wana area has been targeted before. In early May, security forces thwarted a suicide attack on a military post near Azam Warsak Bazaar in South Waziristan; that assault, carried out with an explosives-laden coach, killed one civilian and injured 15 others, and damaged a religious seminary, a gas station, shops and the roofs of several nearby homes, according to security officials at the time.
In November, militants rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the main gate of Cadet College in Wana, breaching the campus before being cornered in the college’s administrative block, the military’s press wing, Inter-Services Public Relations, said at the time. One suicide bomber and four other militants were killed in the retaliatory operation that followed.
Bodies recovered in Balochistan
Separately, security forces in Balochistan province recovered the bodies of four security personnel — three of them serving officers and one retired — who had been abducted and shot dead by unidentified militants in recent weeks, a senior Pakistani government official told Arab News. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.
The bodies were found in Shaban, a mountainous area near the provincial capital, Quetta, during a large-scale security operation, according to the official. That operation followed an attack last week in which the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan killed 32 people, including 27 police officers, in the districts of Quetta and Ziarat, the official said.
The four men were identified by the official as Zubair Ahmed, an inspector with the Airports Security Force; Sepoy Khalil ur Rehman, who served with the Counter Terrorism Department; Muhammad Sadeeq, a retired army soldier; and Sepoy Fareed Ahmed. Arab News reported the identifications based on the official’s account; they had not been independently corroborated as of Thursday.
Inspector Ahmed had travelled from Islamabad to visit family in Quetta while on vacation when he was abducted on June 21, according to his family. The other three men were also abducted in June and July, per the government official’s account. No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings or killings.
The recoveries come amid an active military offensive, Operation Shaban, in Balochistan, along with other intelligence-based operations launched July 5 following a series of militant attacks in the resource-rich province. Pakistan’s military says the campaign has killed 126 militants to date; that figure has not been independently verified.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by area, has been the site of a long-running separatist insurgency that has intensified in recent years, alongside operations against religiously motivated militant groups including the TTP.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said last week that India — which he referred to as Pakistan’s “eastern neighbor” — was backing the attacks in Balochistan, where China has invested heavily under its Belt and Road Initiative, including construction of a deep-water port at Gwadar on the Arabian Sea. Pakistani officials have repeatedly accused India of supporting separatist militants in the province and have accused Afghanistan of harbouring militants who carry out cross-border attacks. Both India and Afghanistan have consistently denied the allegations.
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