Pakistan issued a demarche to the Taliban regime over the use of Afghan soil for a terrorist attack on security forces in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur that martyred 11 soldiers, it emerged on Thursday.
According to a press release by the Foreign Office (FO), the demarche was issued on Wednesday afternoon when the FO summoned the Afghan deputy head of mission.
“Pakistan condemned in the strongest possible terms the vehicle-borne suicide terrorist attack followed by a fire raid on Pakistan military and law enforcement agencies’ posts in Bajaur, carried out by Fitna al Khawarij [or] the TTP,” the statement said.
Fitna al Khawarij is a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
The FO expressed concern that the group, whose entire leadership is based in Afghanistan, “operates with impunity from Afghan soil”.
It re-emphasised that Pakistan had received repeated assurances from the Afghan Taliban regime, “but, regrettably, with no visible or concrete actions”.
“The Afghan Taliban regime has been told to take immediate, concrete and verifiable measures against all terror groups operating from its territory, including their leadership,” the press release said.
The ministry also “categorically informed” the Afghan Taliban that Pakistan “reserved the right to respond and eliminate any khawarij belonging to the group as well as their affiliates”, wherever they were located, “to ensure [the] safety of its soldiers, civilians and territorial boundaries”.
It is worth mentioning that Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said on Wednesday that Islamabad will not hesitate to launch air operations inside Afghanistan to combat militancy, characterising the current regional instability as the “price we are paying” for decisions made during the 1980s and after Sept 11 terrorist attacks.
Separately, security forces killed four Indian-sponsored terrorists in an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat district, the military’s media wing said on Thursday.
According to a statement by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), security forces conducted an IBO last night on the reported presence of khawarij belonging to Indian proxy Fitna al Khawarij.
Fitna al Khawarij is a term that the state uses for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.
“During conduct of the operation, own troops effectively engaged the khawarij location and after an intense fire exchange, four khawarij were sent to hell,” ISPR said.
It added that weapons and ammunition were recovered from the slain terrorists, who “remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities in the area”.
It said that a sanitisation operation was being conducted to eliminate other Indian-sponsored terrorists found in the area. It said that security forces and law enforcement agencies would continue at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism from the country.