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Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Attaullah Tarar. PHOTO: APP
ISLAMABAD:
Security forces killed 67 Fitna al-Khawarij terrorists in Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Tuesday, as ‘Operation Ghazab Lil Haq’ continued in full force across the border.
In multiple updates on X, Tarar said the Afghan Taliban launched coordinated cross-border attacks overnight but were effectively repulsed. He described the attacks as part of a broader pattern of aggression that prompted sustained ground and air responses by Pakistani forces.
According to the minister, in northern Balochistan terrorists carried out attacks at 16 locations in Qilla Saifullah, Noshki and Chaman districts. In addition to these ground attacks, Pakistani troops faced fire attacks at 25 different points.
All attacks were repulsed, with 27 terrorists killed and “dozens” more wounded in the exchanges, Tarar posted. During the clashes, a Frontier Corps (FC) soldier from Balochistan (North) “accepted martyrdom while defending the country, and five were injured,” he added.
In KP, Tarar provided a separate operational account, stating that a physical attack was attempted at one location while fire attacks were being carried out at 12 locations. He said they were all repelled without any loss of life on the Pakistani side.
Forty Afghan Taliban were killed in the night operations in the province, he added, noting that follow-up and manhunt actions are still underway. The latest figures bring the total number of Afghan Taliban killed in the most recent wave of fighting to 67.
So far, according to the ministry, 464 Afghan Taliban regime operatives have been killed and more than 665 injured since ‘Operation Ghazab Lil Haq’ was launched last Thursday in response to an attack on Pakistani forces along the Afghan border.
During the operation, according to the ministry, 188 checkpoints were destroyed, 31 posts were captured and 192 tanks, armored vehicles and artillery pieces were destroyed. Sources said 56 locations were effectively targeted through air operations across Afghanistan.
On Tuesday morning, according to security sources, a large-scale aerial operation in Jalalabad, the main city of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, destroyed an ammunition depot and a drone storage facility. The Khogyani base, also in Nangarhar, was destroyed in an airstrike.
Pakistani forces also captured a checkpoint in Paktika and hoisted the Pakistani flag, while three additional checkpoints were destroyed. AFP journalists in Kabul reported hearing multiple explosions and gunshots on Tuesday.
Tarar said that “the security forces are thwarting the enemy’s nefarious designs with all their might and the operation will continue to its logical conclusion.” Security sources claimed that Afghan Taliban elements and Fitna al-Khawarij were in retreat after Pakistani ground and air operations.
Amid escalating military exchanges, Pakistan’s Information Ministry took steps to counter disinformation emanating from Kabul. The ministry’s fact-checking wing categorically rejected claims that Afghan forces had carried out airstrikes on Pakistani military bases.
Islamabad dismissed the Afghan reports as “completely false” and described them as “futile efforts” to create “false success stories.” Officials claimed that the Afghan Taliban lacks the capability to conduct long-range airstrikes.
(WITH INPUT FROM THE APP)
