Attack on Pakistani security post near Afghanistan kills 23 soldiers

Twenty-three soldiers were killed Tuesday in northwestern Pakistan when heavily armed militants attacked a security post in one of the deadliest attacks on the country’s security forces in recent years, officials said.

The pre-dawn raid took place on the outskirts of Dera Ismail Khan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan and has been plagued by militancy and terrorist attacks since the Afghan Taliban took power in the neighboring country two years ago.

The militants launched the attack by ramming an explosives-laden vehicle into the perimeter of the compound, next to a police station, causing a building to collapse and causing numerous casualties, the Pakistani military said in a statement. After a fierce firefight, all six attackers were killed, the report said.

In a separate recent episode in the same district, a military operation against a militant hideout resulted in the deaths of two soldiers and 21 militants, according to the army.

Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan, a relatively unknown militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack on the security post. The group’s spokesman, Mullah Muhammad Qasim, said on messaging app Telegram that the attack began with a suicide bombing and other militants then stormed the complex.

Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have increased, with Pakistan accusing the Afghan Taliban of harboring the Pakistani Taliban. Violence in the border area has increased significantly since early October, when Pakistan announced a policy requiring all undocumented foreigners to leave the country by November 1, a measure that has particularly affected Afghans.

Dera Ismail Khan and nearby districts have been hotbeds of terrorism for decades, and Dera Ismail Khan has recently experienced several attacks. On November 3, a bomb attack targeted local police, killing five people and injuring more than twenty. Jabbar Ali, a police officer in the district, said the local force faced difficulties in repelling militants equipped with advanced weapons, including night vision. equipment left behind by the US military during its withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

In May, Pakistani law enforcement agencies killed a key commander of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, another militant group, in a gun battle. The commander, Iqbal, also known as Bali Kiara, had been involved in several high-profile attacks on security forces in Dera Ismail Khan and neighboring districts and had a bounty on his head of about $35,000, according to police.

TJP, the militant group said to be behind Tuesday’s attack on the security post, rose to prominence in February after claiming responsibility for the death of a soldier on the Afghan border. Since then, it has mainly focused on the Pakistani army.

Pakistani security officials believe the organization serves as a front for other groups, reducing pressure on the Taliban government in Afghanistan to expel Pakistani militants belonging to these groups.

Military experts described the timing of Tuesday’s attack as strategic, considering it dovetails with Pakistan’s deteriorating relations with Afghanistan, a crackdown on undocumented Afghans and the first official visit to the United States by Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Syed Asim Munir. hold discussions with US military officials.

“The TJP is a front organization of the TTP, and the TTP is guided by the Taliban regime in Kabul,” Asfandyar Mir, a senior analyst at the United States Institute of Peace, a Washington-based think tank, said of the two groups. .

“For this reason, Pakistan has increased pressure to force the Taliban to reconsider their support for the TTP,” he said, adding that the attack on the security post could be a retaliation by the Taliban “in an attempt to persuade Pakistan to withdraw. ”