Pakistani security forces have raided two hideouts of the Pakistan Taliban armed group near the Afghan border this week, triggering fierce clashes that killed 12 soldiers and 35 fighters, says the military.
The military on Saturday said 22 fighters were killed in the first raid in Bajaur, a district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Thirteen more were killed in a separate operation in South Waziristan district, it added.
The statement said the 12 soldiers, “having fought gallantly, paid the ultimate sacrifice and embraced martyrdom” in South Waziristan, their deaths underscoring the struggles Pakistan faces as it tries to rein in resurging armed groups.
The Pakistan Taliban, also known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attacks in a message on social media. The group, which Islamabad says is based in Afghanistan, is separate to but closely linked with the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan.
The Pakistan Taliban uses Afghan soil to stage attacks in Pakistan, the military said, urging the Taliban government in Kabul “to uphold its responsibilities and deny use of its soil for terrorist activities against Pakistan”.
The military described the killed fighters as “Khwarij”, a term the government uses for the Pakistan Taliban, and alleged they were backed by India, though it offered no evidence for the allegation.
Pakistan has long accused India of supporting the Pakistan Taliban and separatists in Balochistan, charges that New Delhi denies. There was no immediate comment from the Taliban in Kabul or from New Delhi.
Pakistan has faced a surge in armed attacks in recent years, most claimed by the Pakistan Taliban, which has become emboldened since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021, with many Pakistan Taliban leaders and fighters finding sanctuary across the border.
Saturday’s attack was one of the deadliest in months in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the Pakistan Taliban once controlled swaths of territory until they were pushed back by a military operation that began in 2014.
For several weeks, residents of various districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have reported that graffiti bearing the Pakistan Taliban’s name has appeared on buildings. They say they fear a return to the group’s reign over the region during the peak of the so-called war on terror, led by the United States, which spilled across from Afghanistan.
A local government official recently told the AFP news agency that the number of Pakistan Taliban fighters and attacks had increased.
Nearly 460 people, mostly members of the security forces, have been killed since January 1 in attacks carried out by armed groups fighting the state, both in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the southern province of Balochistan, according to an AFP tally.
Last year was Pakistan’s deadliest in nearly a decade, with more than 1,600 deaths, nearly half of them soldiers and police officers, according to the Islamabad-based Centre for Research and Security Studies.
