Two Afghan-based Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP) militants were tracked down and killed by security forces in Bajaur Agency during an intelligence-based operation (IBO), an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) press release said.
The suspected terrorists entered Bajaur Agency via the Kagha Pass. They were tracked down by security forces and surrounded by a cordon near the Ghatki Kaga area, the ISPR said, and were killed when they attempted to escape.
Suicide jackets, anti-tank mines, magnetic mines, prepared remote-controlled Improvised Explosive Devices, remote-controlled receivers, detonators and communications equipment “bearing [an] Afghan mobile company’s signature” were recovered from the possession of the militants, ISPR said.
The ISPR added that, through the IBO, the security forces had foiled a major terror bid in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Islamabad.
Pakistan and Afghanistan accuse each other of harbouring terrorists. Islamabad has strongly denied harbouring terrorist safe havens, and maintains they have been wiped out during counter-terror operations particularly in the tribal areas and places close to the shared porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistan has also begun fencing the border in order to prevent cross-border movement of terrorists.
Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa on Saturday at a defence conference in Munich maintained that Pakistan was being targeted by terrorists operating on Afghan soil. He stressed the need for early repatriation of the 2.7 million Afghan refugees currently residing in Pakistan.
