ISLAMABAD: At least 181 militants were killed by security forces in over 7,000 operations in Pakistan’s southern and northern provinces in the last two months, state media reported on Wednesday, as the South Asian state grapples with a rise in militancy.
Islamabad blames the uptick in attacks on neighboring Afghanistan, saying Pakistani Taliban, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), leaders have taken refuge there and run camps to train militants to launch attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul has previously said rising violence in Pakistan is a domestic issue for Islamabad and it does not allow militants to operate on its territory.
The TTP has been waging a war against the state to try to overthrow the government for nearly two decades. It wants to run Pakistan as an Islamic state governed by its own harsh interpretation of Islam.
“Security forces have killed 181 terrorists in over 7,000 operations in different parts of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan from April 1 till 10th of this month [June],” Radio Pakistan said on Wednesday.
The “terrorists” were killed during cross-border infiltration from Afghanistan but “the timely response of security forces foiled the sordid designs of banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan,” the report added, saying infiltration attempts were made in KP’s Bajaur, Dir and Chitral.
“To conceal its failure, TTP forced the people of tribal areas for target killing and kidnapping for ransom,” Radio Pakistan added, referring to a way of killings of security and government officials in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. “The TTP network involved in targeting the Chinese nationals was also behind bars.”
Last week, a bomb blast targeting a military truck killed seven soldiers in northwestern Pakistan along the border with Afghanistan in one of the deadliest attacks on security forces in recent months. In March, a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a convoy of Chinese engineers that was on its way from Islamabad to a camp in Dasu, the site of a major dam project. Five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver were killed in the assault.
