Caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani on Friday said this week’s terrorist attack on two military posts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lower Chitral district was an “isolated incident” and not sanctioned by the interim Afghan government. “It was an isolated incident and we don’t think it had their (Afghan government) sanction,” FM Jilani told a private television channel while responding to a question on rising terrorism in Pakistan emanating from Afghanistan The foreign minister later reiterated his stance and said ongoing dialogue with the Afghan government on surging militancy was “very positive”. Pakistan has witnessed an uptick in terror activities in recent months, especially in KP and Balochistan, after the outlawed TTP ended its ceasefire with the government in November last year. In July, as many as 12 soldiers of the Pakistan Army embraced martyrdom in separate military operations in the Zhob and Sui areas of Balochistan. That was the military’s highest single-day death toll from terrorist attacks reported this year. Before this, 10 personnel were martyred in a ‘fire raid’ in Balochistan’s Kech district in February 2022. A report released in July by the think tank Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies said the first half of the current year witnessed a steady and alarming rise in terror and suicide attacks, claiming the lives of 389 people across the country. Amid the rise in militancy is a backdrop of growing concerns regarding cross-border terrorism by elements based in Afghanistan.