ISLAMABAD:
Seventeen terrorists were killed in an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in a volatile southern district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the military announced on Saturday — a day after Pakistan, China, Iran, and Russia expressed “deep concern” over the continued presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan.
The IBO was conducted in Lakki Marwat district, following the reports of presence of “khwarij belonging to Indian proxy, Fitna al Khwarij,” on the night between Sept 26 and 27, the ISPR, the military’s media wing, said in a statement.
The “troops effectively engaged the khwarij location” and in the ensuing gunfight “17 Indian-sponsored khwarij were sent to hell”, it added. “Weapons and ammunition were (also) recovered during the operation.”
According to the ISPR, the dead terrorists were involved in several terrorist attacks on security forces and law-enforcement agencies, as well as the killing of innocent civilians.
A mop-up operation is underway in the area, as the ISPR said, “the security forces are determined to wipe out the menace of Indian-sponsored terrorism from the country.”
Pakistan uses the term “Fitna al Khwarij” for the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, an umbrella of terrorist groups responsible for much of terrorist violence in the country. The group has found safe havens across the border in Afghanistan following its rout in the Zarb-e-Azb military operation in the erstwhile tribal areas in 2014.
Islamabad has repeatedly urged the Taliban regime in Kabul to fulfill its obligation under the Doha Agreement and act against the TTP and other terrorist groups hostile towards Pakistan. The Taliban regime, however, maintains plausible deniability, claiming instead that the problem lies across the border in Pakistan.
No regional country or international body is willing to buy the Taliban’s deniability because mounting evidence suggests Afghanistan has once again become a magnet for transnational and international terrorist organisations following the capture of power by the Taliban in August 2021.
On Friday, four countries — Pakistan, China, Iran and Russia — warned that terrorist outfits based in Afghanistan such as ISIL, al Qaida, TTP, Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and others continue to threaten regional and global security.
The warning was made in a joint statement after their 4th quadrilateral meeting on Afghanistan held on the sidelines of the 80th UN General Assembly session in New York. The meeting, convened at the invitation of Russia, brought together foreign ministers of the four states to review the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.
According to the statement, the ministers urged the Afghan authorities to take “effective, concrete and verifiable actions” against terrorist networks, including dismantling their training camps, cutting off financing, and preventing recruitment and access to weapons. They also called for non-discriminatory elimination of all terrorist outfits and stressed that Afghan soil must not be used against its neighbours or beyond.
