Pakistan Army soldiers were attacked by terrorists at two places in the last 24 hours, leaving 12 soldiers dead and several others injured. This was the biggest attack on the army this year. Last year, in February, about 10 soldiers were killed in a terrorist attack in Kech district of Balochistan. The attack on the military installation was carried out by a group of 20 heavily armed men dressed in military fatigue.
This was the second attack on security forces in Zhob, a regional headquarters of Frontier Corps, a para-military force led largely by the Pakistan Army. Early on July 2, terrorists had attacked three checkposts of police, levies and the Frontier Corps on the Zhob-Dera Ismail Khan highway in the Sherani district of Balochistan. Three policemen and an FC officer were killed in the attack.
An outfit calling itself the Tehreek Jihad Pakistan (TJP) claimed responsibility for the attack on the Zhob garrison. The same group had earlier claimed responsibility for an attack at an FC camp in the Muslim Bagh area of Qila Abdullah, as well as targeting a police truck on the Quetta-Sukkur highway near Sibi a few months back. The group is believed to be a shadow of TTP.
Later in the same day, the soldiers carrying out an operation in Sui in Balochistan came under fire from terrorists. Three soldiers were killed in the exchange of fire. Two terrorists also fell to the military bullets.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has been carrying out a series of attacks against the military and police personnel since November last when the militant group unilaterally called off its ceasefire with the army. The army had entered into a secret peace pact with the militant group after sporadic counter-offensive campaigns and negotiations with the group as well as its patrons, the Afghan Taliban, had failed.
Balochistan, along with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), were reported to be the primary centres of terror attacks during the second quarter of 2023, accounting for more than 80% of all fatalities in the country.
Read a detailed story on TTP’s resurgence
Pakistan has been witnessing a spike in terrorist activities , especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, after the militant group, TTP, ended its ceasefire in November last. Several hundred people have been killed in the attacks, including over hundred security personnel.
A report published early this month by think tank Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies reported that in the past six months there had been a steady and alarming rise in terror and suicide attacks, claiming the lives of 389 people across the country.
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