No fewer than seven Pakistani soldiers lost their lives in a bombing incident targeting their vehicle in a northwest region adjacent to Afghanistan on Sunday, June 9, 2024.
According to a military statement, the casualties, comprising six enlisted men and one officer, were inflicted by an “improvised explosive device” in the Lakki Marwat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
A senior police officer stationed in Lakki Marwat disclosed to AFP that the explosion resulted in the complete destruction of the vehicle. “We have received information that the vehicle came under fire after the blast,” he added, preferring anonymity.
The Pakistani Taliban, commonly known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), remains highly active in the area, frequently targeting security forces. The surge in attacks in Pakistan correlates with the Taliban’s resurgence in Afghanistan since August 2021.
In 2021, 29 suicide attacks, the highest since 2014, claimed 329 lives, according to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies.
Islamabad has accused the new rulers in Kabul of neglecting to eliminate militants harboring in Afghan territory, allegedly orchestrating attacks on Pakistan.
Contrary to these accusations, the Taliban administration in Afghanistan denies sheltering foreign militants and pledges to prevent Afghan soil from being used for such purposes.
However, analysts point out the shared lineage and ideology between the TTP and the Afghan Taliban.
In January 2023, the TTP was implicated in a mosque suicide bombing in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, resulting in the deaths of over 80 police officers.
Additionally, in September, Pakistan reported the deaths of four troops in a cross-border raid by “hundreds” of TTP fighters in Chitral, an area popular among domestic tourists.
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