https://arab.news/57ju8
- Bombing at peace rally killed 17 people, highlighting Pakistan’s worsening security challenges
- Pakistan has intensified counterterrorism operations following sharp rise in militancy in recent years
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s security forces will continue intelligence-based operations across the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province until “lasting peace is established and terrorism is eliminated,” Radio Pakistan reported on Monday, a day after a suspected suicide bombing killed at least 17 people at a peace rally in the Swat Valley.
The blast struck outside Kabal police station on Sunday as participants were leaving the Swat People’s Peace Uprising, a rally organized by local residents and civil society groups amid renewed militant violence in the valley. Seventeen people, including police officers and civilians, were killed and over a dozen others wounded.
The attack comes as Pakistan has intensified counterterrorism operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and neighboring Balochistan following a sharp rise in militant violence over the past three years. Intelligence-based operations, in which security forces act on specific intelligence rather than launching large-scale offensives, have become the military’s primary strategy against insurgent groups operating in the country’s western border regions.
Islamabad has repeatedly blamed the resurgence on the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), saying its fighters operate from sanctuaries in neighboring Afghanistan and launch cross-border attacks into Pakistan. Kabul has denied allowing Afghan territory to be used for attacks against Pakistan but the issue has become a major source of tension between the two neighbors since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021.
“Security sources reaffirmed that the security forces will continue operations across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa until lasting peace is established and terrorism is eliminated,” Radio Pakistan said in its report.
According to the state broadcaster, security forces have been conducting intelligence-based operations across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under the government’s Azm-e-Istehkam (“Resolve for Stability“) counterterrorism campaign over the past two months.
It said several militants were killed during the latest operation in the Khatti Kili area of North Waziristan district, where security forces destroyed what they described as militant hideouts and recovered weapons, ammunition and other equipment. The report added that several other militants were believed to have been wounded.
The state broadcaster, citing security sources, said every effort was being made during the operations to protect civilians and their property while targeting militant infrastructure.
No group had claimed responsibility for Sunday’s bombing in Swat by Monday afternoon.
Swat, once the epicenter of Pakistan’s war against the Pakistani Taliban, has witnessed growing public concern in recent years over a renewed militant presence, prompting repeated peace marches by residents demanding stronger security measures.