Security forces counter unprovoked firing by Afghan Taliban targeting Kurram border posts

KURRAM: Security forces launched an effective and full-scale retaliatory response to unprovoked firing by the Afghan Taliban at border posts in Kurram, security sources told Dawn on Sunday.

The Afghan Taliban used heavy weapons, mortars and other arms to target border posts, after which Pakistani security forces responded immediately and forcefully, targeting Afghan Taliban border posts, mortar positions and defensive checkpoints with both light and heavy weapons, including artillery, security sources said.

Pakistani security forces maintained complete control over border areas while delivering a strong response to the cross-border aggression, the security sources said, as a result of which the Afghan Taliban were forced to abandon multiple posts and flee.

The border situation is being continuously monitored, and security forces are fully prepared and on alert to issue an immediate and decisive response to any act of provocation by the enemy, security sources said.

On the night of February 26, following unprovoked firing by the Afghan Taliban from across the border, Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq against terrorist hideouts.

On April 2/3, security forces foiled an attempt by the Afghan Taliban and terrorists to attack a border post in KP’s Ghulam Khan Sector, in which 37 of the attackers were killed and more than 80 were injured.

Providing an update then, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar had said 796 terrorists and Afghan Taliban operatives had been killed while over 1,043 had been injured since Operation Ghazab lil-Haq was launched.

Later that month, security forces destroyed gun positions of Afghan Taliban involved in unprovoked firing at civilians in South Waziristan, injuring three, security sources said.

On April 28, mortar shells fired from across the Pak-Afghan border injured five people — four children and a woman — in the Angoor Adda village of South Waziristan, security sources said.

Islamabad has repeatedly urged the Taliban administration in Kabul to dismantle terrorist sanctuaries on Afghan soil that are used for attacks in Pakistan. Officials say those appeals have gone unheeded. ...