Di Khan / Islamabad:
At least six terrorists were killed while the security forces moved away a massive suicide attack on a garrison in the South Volatile district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Tuesday evening, security sources in the midst of the reports of several civilian victims in the frightful assault said.
The attack on the canton of Bannu, who involved more than a dozen terrorists, occurs a few days after a suicide bomber killed six people, including Maulana Hamidul Haq, Jamait Ulema-E-Islam (Samiul Haq Group), in Darul Uloom Haqqania in Akora Khattak.
Security sources have said that Khawarij, strongly armed, has made an aborted attempt to make their way to Bannu Cantt. However, they panicked outside the garrison due to the timely action of the security forces, the sources added. “In a state of panic, the Khawarij crushed two vehicles loaded with explosives in the walls of Bannu Cantt.”
The term Khawarij is used by the security forces for Pakistan Tehreek-E-Taliban (TTP), a prohibited umbrella of terrorist groups responsible for a large part of violence in the country. The TTP was sent from the old tribal areas following a successful military operation, appointed Zarb-E-Azb, in 2014. Group A has since found sanctuaries in Afghanistan.
The explosions caused by vehicles loaded with Kohati Gate explosives have destroyed the roof of a mosque and damaged several houses in the neighboring Kot Barah region, causing several civilian victims, according to officials. Several faithful were trapped under the rubble of the mosque.
“The number of deaths is now twelve, including five children and two women, while at least 16 others were injured,” a senior police official in Reuters told anonymity. “The explosions have created two craters of four feet, and because of their intensity, at least eight houses in the town have been damaged,” added the police manager.
According to Muhammad Nauman, spokesperson for the banned medical education establishment, five bodies were received in two hospitals managed by the state of the district, including three children and two women. He added that a state of emergency had been declared in the hospitals of the city.
Security sources have said six Khawarij have been neutralized by security personnel at various entry points and that the remaining terrorists were trapped. “The customs clearance operation will continue until all the Khawarij are eliminated,” they added.
The targeting of innocent civilians and the mosque at the time of Iftar during the sacred month of Ramazan shows that Khawarij has nothing to do with Islam, according to security sources.
The cheeky attack was claimed by a subsidiary of the terrorist group Banned Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who benefits from the sanctuaries on the other side of the border in Afghanistan. The group led a similar fatal attack on the same garrison last July, exploding a vehicle loaded with explosive against the limit wall.
President Asif Ali Zardari sentenced the terrorist attack and praised the security forces to “send the attackers to hell,” his office said in a statement. “Such an attack during Iftar in the sacred month of Ramazan is an odious act,” he said, adding that the whole nation rejects such harmful actions.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also congratulated the security forces for “sending the terrorists to hell” who tried to attack the Bann Cantt. “The loose terrorists who targeted innocent civilians during the sacred month of Ramazan do not deserve any pity,” said the Prime Minister quoted by his office in a statement.
Terrorist attacks increased in Pakistan since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021. Last year was the deadliest of a decade, with an increase in attacks that killed more than 1,600 people, according to the Center for Research and Security Studies analysis group.
Islamabad has repeatedly urged Kabul’s Taliban leaders to eliminate the TTP and its affiliates who take shelter on Afghan soil, but the Taliban remain reluctant. A United Nations report revealed last month that the continuous support of Afghan Taliban at the TTP fueled the group’s growing attacks in Pakistan.
The revelation was made in the 35th report of the Supervisory Supervisory Team and Analytical Sanctions subject to the United Nations Security Council, which covers the period from July 1 to December 13, 2024. “The status and strength of TTP in Afghanistan had not changed”, while the group intensified its attacks on Pakistan, conducting more than 600 attacks in the report period, Afghan Territory.
He stressed that the Taliban continued to provide TTP with a logistics and operational space and financial support, strengthening the group’s ability to maintain its activities. The report revealed that the TTP chief’s family receives around $ 43,000 a month from Afghan Taliban.
(With an additional contribution of News Desk and Agencies)
