Seven Pakistan Army soldiers including two officers die in multiple suicide attacks
At least seven Pakistan Army soldiers, including two officers, were killed when six terrorists launched multiple suicide attacks on a security check post in the restive tribal district of North Waziristan bordering Afghanistan on Saturday, the military said.
A lieutenant colonel and a captain were killed along with five soldiers. All the six terrorists who attacked the check post in Mir Ali area were shot dead.
According to the ISPR statement, after the troops foiled the initial attempt of intrusion, the terrorists rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the post, followed by multiple suicide bombing attacks.
During the subsequent clearance operation, troops effectively engaged and killed all six terrorists.
However, during the intense exchange of fire, Lieutenant Colonel Syed Kashif Ali and Captain Muhammad Ahmed Badar were killed, the statement said.
The military’s media wing said a sanitisation operation was being conducted to eliminate any other terrorists present in the area.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur condemned the attack and expressed grief over the death of the soldiers.
According to an annual security report issued by the Centre for Research and Security Studies, Pakistan witnessed 1,524 violence-related fatalities and 1,463 injuries from 789 terror attacks and counter-terror operations in 2023 – marking a record six-year high.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces were the primary centres of violence, accounting for over 90 per cent of all fatalities and 84 per cent of attacks, including incidents of terrorism and security forces operations.
Restoration of X
Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has called on the Pakistan government to immediately restore social media platform X, which has been blocked in the country since February 17, days after the general elections were held on February 8.
Urging the Pakistani authorities to “uphold the rights to freedom of expression and access to information under the country’s international human rights commitments”, the UK-based NGO in a post on X said it is one of the 28 civil society organisations that have signed a joint statement calling for immediate restoration of the social media platform in the country 29 days after it was blocked.
“The complete silence of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is extremely alarming as they have failed to furnish any reasons for its actions and exceeded its mandate to block an entire internet platform,” the statement signed by 28
organisations, including Human Rights Watch, Pakistan Press Foundation, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and the Pakistan Bar Council, said.
On February 8, Amnesty International described Pakistan’s decision to suspend mobile internet services throughout the day as the country held its general elections as a “blunt attack on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly”.
