By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Four soldiers were martyred on Friday when militants rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the outer wall of a security forces camp in the restive North Waziristan district, collapsing part of the structure and injuring at least 15 civilians, including women and children, military said.
Hours later, the Foreign Office summoned an Afghan diplomat to deliver a sharp protest, accusing the Taliban government in Kabul of harboring the attackers and enabling cross-border terrorism.
The attack, which the military described as a “heinous and cowardly terrorist act,” unfolded in the Boya area, a rugged frontier region near the Afghan border long plagued by insurgent violence. It was carried out by members Fitna al Khawarij, a term they use for militants affiliated with the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a terrorist group that has waged a brutal campaign against the state.
The Foreign Office, in a separate statement, specified that the assailants belonged to the “Kharji Gul Bahadur Group,” a faction within the broader militant network.
According to a statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations, the military’s media arm, the assailants first tried to breach the camp’s perimeter but were repelled by troops on guard. “Their nefarious designs were swiftly foiled by the vigilant and resolute response by own troops,” the statement said. Undeterred, the militants then drove the vehicle bomb into the wall, causing it to collapse and inflicting “considerable damage to adjacent civilian infrastructure, including a mosque,” the military said.
Nearby homes and other buildings were also damaged, and the blast left “severe injuries to fifteen local civilians, including innocent children and women.” Earlier reports from police and hospital sources in the area indicated that at least 11 civilians had been wounded and taken to the district headquarters hospital in Miranshah for treatment. Weapons and explosives were later recovered from the attackers, the military added, releasing photographs of the seized items.
In the ensuing firefight, four soldiers were killed, the statement said, identifying them as Havildar Muhammad Waqas, 42, from Kotli District; Naik Khanwaiz, 38, from Mansehra District; Sepoy Sufyan Haider, 25, from Vehari District; and Sepoy Riffat, 32, from Leyyah District. “During the intense fire exchanges, four brave sons of soil … having fought gallantly, paid the ultimate sacrifice and embraced Shahadat,” the military said.
The incident highlighted the persistent threat from militants operating across the porous border with Afghanistan, where Pakistani officials say many TTP terrorists have found sanctuary since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021. The military asserted that the attack was “planned and orchestrated by Afghanistan-based khwarij,” using another derogatory term for the militants, and that it contradicted claims by the Afghan Taliban government denying the presence of such groups on their territory.
“Pakistan expects from Afghan Taliban Regime to fulfil its obligations and deny use of its soil by Khwarij against Pakistan as the safety and security of people of Pakistan comes first and foremost,” the military statement said. It added that Pakistan “reserves the right to hunt down and eliminate the terrorists and their facilitators to ensure the safety of the Pakistani people.”
In a swift diplomatic escalation, the Foreign Office summoned the Afghan deputy head of mission to Islamabad and issued a formal demarche, expressing “grave concern over the continued support and facilitation provided to TTP” by the Taliban regime. “Pakistan condemns, in the strongest possible terms, today’s terrorist attack carried out by Khwarij belonging to Kharji Gul Bahadur Group on a Pakistan Military camp in North Waziristan District,” the Foreign Office spokesperson said in a statement.
The demarche conveyed Pakistan’s frustration over what it called the “permissive environment enjoyed by the TTP in Afghanistan,” which “belies Afghanistan’s international commitments as well as to Pakistan, that it would not allow its soil to be used against any other country, including Pakistan,” the statement added. Pakistan demanded “a full investigation and decisive action against the perpetrators and facilitators of the terrorist attacks launched against Pakistan from Afghan soil,” the spokesperson said. “The Afghan Taliban regime has been urged to take immediate, concrete and verifiable measures against all terror groups operating from its territory, including their leadership, and deny the continued use of Afghan soil for terrorism against Pakistan.” The Afghan Taliban regime “has also been categorically informed that Pakistan reserves the right to defend its sovereignty and protect its citizens, and will take all necessary measures to respond to terrorism originating from Afghan soil.”
The strike came just two months after a similar assault on a military camp in the nearby Mir Ali area of North Waziristan, where security forces killed four militants who attempted a suicide bombing. In that incident, state media reported, one attacker drove an explosives-packed vehicle into the camp’s wall, while three others tried to storm inside.
Friday’s violence is part of a broader surge in terrorist attacks across Pakistan’s border region, which has seen a sharp rise in militant activity in recent years. Earlier this year, the country ranked second on the Global Terrorism Index 2025, with deaths from such attacks increasing by 45 percent compared with the previous year, according to the report by the Institute for Economics and Peace.
North Waziristan, once a stronghold for Al Qaeda and other jihadist factions, has been the site of repeated military operations aimed at rooting out insurgents. But the TTP has regrouped and intensified its operations, often targeting security forces and civilians alike. Pakistani leaders have repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban of harboring TTP, a charge that Kabul denies. The tensions have strained relations between the two neighbors, with Islamabad carrying out occasional airstrikes into Afghan territory against suspected militant hide-outs.
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