ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan army said on Thursday 22 militants had been killed in counter-terror operations along the Afghan border since Oct. 28, as Islamabad agreed to extend peace talks with Kabul at the request of mediators from Turkiye and Qatar amid surging cross-border violence.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing, said 18 militants were killed on Oct. 28 and 29 in two encounters in the southwestern Balochistan province and four more were gunned down in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while trying to infiltrate from Afghanistan on Wednesday night. Both provinces share a frontier with Afghanistan.
The ISPR said a “high-value terrorist commander,” identified as Amjad alias ‘Mazahim’, deputy to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Noor Wali Mehsud, was among those killed.
“It is pertinent to highlight that the leadership of Fitna al Khawarij, while residing in Afghanistan, is orchestrating infiltration attempts into Pakistan,” the military said, using its term for the TTP.
“It is once again reiterated that the Interim Afghan government must take concrete measures to ensure that Afghan soil is not used by kharji proxies to perpetrate terrorism against Pakistan.”
