Pakistani fighter jets on Sunday launched air strikes on militant hideouts inside the northwest, killing at the very least 38 people, in step with officials, inside the latest retaliation for attacks by the insurgents which have derailed peace talks.
The early morning strikes made on militant hideouts within the Tirah valley of the Khyber tribal district were the third within the series of raids by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) since February 20.
They follow the execution of 23 Pakistan soldiers by the Taliban last week, which cast doubts over dialogue initiated by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on January 29.
“There are confirmed reports that 38 terrorists including some important commanders were killed,” an announcement by the army said, adding that “six hideouts were completely destroyed”.
Earlier, a senior security official in Islamabad said IED (Improvised Explosive Devices) making factories and explosive material were destroyed.
Local administration officials refused to comment, saying it was an issue for the army, and the tolls couldn’t be independently verified because it is tough for journalists to go into the realm.
In another violent incident Sunday, a bomb planted near a bus stop killed 12 people including two women and a kid in a northwestern Pakistani city on Sunday, police said.
They said 12 more were injured when the bomb went off within the city of Kohat inside the troubled province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Police said around five kilograms (11 pounds) of explosive were planted in a cooking oil container and placed near the bus stop inside the city center before being detonated remotely.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday’s blast, but such attacks are regularly staged by the Pakistani Taliban.
On Saturday, no less than nine militants were killed when Pakistani gunship helicopters pounded Taliban hideouts in Thall village in Hangu district, near the tribal areas where militants associated with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda have strongholds.
Two days earlier, security officials said they killed over 30 militants including 16 Uzbeks within the air strikes conducted within the northwest, infiltrated by the local and foreign militants.
Spiraling violence
The air strikes and spiraling violence have cast serious doubt on a troubled peace process between the federal government and the insurgents that began just three weeks ago.
After several rounds of talks, government mediators pulled out of scheduled dialogue with their Taliban counterparts on Monday amid outrage over the claimed execution of 23 kidnapped soldiers.
A faction of the Islamist movement from Mohmand near the Afghan border said on February 16 that they had killed the warriors who were seized within the area in June 2010.
Government mediators have set a ceasefire as a precondition for one more round of talks but Shahidullah Shahid, a spokesman for Pakistani Taliban, on Friday blamed Islamabad for the deadlock and asked the state to declare a ceasefire first.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella grouping of diverse militant factions, have been waging a bloody campaign against the Pakistani state since 2007, engaging in several bomb and gun attacks, often on military targets.
Related Topic Tags