A suicide attack by militants on a Pakistani outpost killed 12 soldiers in the northwest region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, the country’s military said on Wednesday. Armed Militants rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the perimeter wall of the outpost, and damaged the adjoining infrastructure during the attack on Tuesday.
“Sanitization operation is being conducted in the area and the perpetrators of this heinous act will be brought to justice,” the statement said, adding that six militants had been killed. The military did not provide details on who was behind the attack, but Hafiz Gul Bahadur, an Islamist militant group that is a breakaway faction of the Pakistan Taliban, has claimed responsibility.
The Bannu district has been subject to a spate of militant attacks of late, including the abduction of cops, an attack on a girls’ school, and a shootout that killed three security men. The attack in the Mali Khel area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu adds to the long list of attacks Pakistan has been under. The regions of Balochistan and Khyber have been incredibly volatile over the past few years.
The Khyber region has seen an uptake in terror attacks as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) continues to run amuck. The TTP is backed by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The terrorist regime that came to power in Afghanistan in 2021 has been in a constant struggle with the Pakistan establishment. It has also refuted the Durand line boundary between the two countries. The restive region of Khyber is claimed by both the Afghans and the Pakistani government.
Terrorist attacks have escalated after the TTP broke a ceasefire agreement with the Pakistan government in 2022 and vowed to target security forces. In 2023, Pakistan witnessed 1,524 violence-related fatalities and 1,463 injuries from 789 terror attacks and counterterrorism operations. Overall fatalities, including those of outlaws, marked a record six-year high. The attack comes at the back of the massive blast in Quetta, Balochistan that killed at least 24 people while more than 50 were injured after a suicide bomb blast ripped through a railway station.
