At least eight soldiers and one civilian were killed in separate attacks along Pakistan’s western border with Afghanistan on Friday, amid a surge in violence in the region in recent months, according to police sources.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, seven soldiers were killed during a security operation targeting “armed Taliban” militants. Police reported that fighters, hiding inside a house, opened fire on security forces. In response, the military deployed helicopters, killing eight Taliban fighters and wounding six soldiers in the subsequent battle.
Further south in Balochistan, a bomb planted by separatists on a motorbike killed a soldier and a civilian, according to police officer Mohsin Ali. The attack took place as a military vehicle passed through Gwadar district, a region of strategic importance hosting significant Chinese infrastructure. This area was also the scene of a major attack last month, when militants held hundreds of train passengers hostage and killed several off-duty soldiers.
The Balochistan blast also wounded three soldiers and a civilian. These incidents come amid increasing instability in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, as armed groups continue to target government forces. Since the start of the year, more than 190 people, mostly security personnel, have been killed in attacks, according to an AFP tally.
The Pakistani Taliban (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, TTP) announced a “spring campaign” against security forces in mid-March, intensifying the violence. Last year was the deadliest in nearly a decade for Pakistan, with more than 1,600 people killed in attacks, nearly half of them security forces personnel, according to the Center for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad.
The violence remains largely concentrated in Pakistan’s border regions with Afghanistan.
AFP
